An experiment for novel material thin-film solar cell characterization on sounding rocket flights.

Novel material thin-film solar cells are promising alternatives to conventional solar cells for future space applications. Previous terrestrial investigations have shown promising stability under simulated space conditions, pioneering the next step to test these solar cells under space conditions. Here, we present the sounding rocket experiment OHSCIS to characterize the electronic behavior of Organic and Hybrid Solar Cells In Space (OHSCIS).

Self-Assembly in ultrahigh molecular weight sphere-forming diblock copolymer thin films under strong confinement.

Ultrahigh molecular weight (UHMW) diblock copolymers (DBCs) have emerged as a promising template for fabricating large-sized nanostructures. Therefore, it is of high significance to systematically study the influence of film thickness and solvent vapor annealing (SVA) on the structure evolution of UHMW DBC thin films. In this work, spin coating of an asymmetric linear UHMW polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) DBC is used to fabricate thin films, which are spherically structured with an inter-domain distance larger than 150 nm.

Effect of Solvent Additives on the Morphology and Device Performance of Printed Nonfullerene Acceptor Based Organic Solar Cells.

Printing of active layers of high-efficiency organic solar cells and morphology control by processing with varying solvent additive concentrations are important to realize real-world use of bulk-heterojunction photovoltaics as it enables both up-scaling and optimization of the device performance. In this work, active layers of the conjugated polymer with benzodithiophene units PBDB-T-SF and the nonfullerene small molecule acceptor IT-4F are printed using meniscus guided slot-die coating. 1,8-Diiodooctane (DIO) is added to optimize the power conversion efficiency (PCE).

Readily available titania nanostructuring routines based on mobility and polarity controlled phase separation of an amphiphilic diblock copolymer.

The amphiphilic diblock copolymer polystyrene-block-polyethylene oxide is combined with sol-gel chemistry to control the structure formation of blade-coated foam-like titania thin films. The influence of evaporation time before immersion into a poor solvent bath and polarity of the poor solvent bath are studied. Resulting morphological changes are quantified by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) measurements.