@misc{CardinalettiKestersBerthoetal.2014,
  author    = {Cardinaletti, Ilaria and Kesters, Jurgen and Bertho, Sabine and Conings, Bert and Piersimoni, Fortunato and Lutsen, Laurence and Nesladek, Milos and Van Mele, Bruno and Van Assche, Guy and Vandewal, Koen and Salleo, Alberto and Vanderzande, Dirk and Maes, Wouter and Manca, Jean V.},
  title     = {Toward bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells with thermally stable active layer morphology},
  series = {Journal of photonics for energy},
  volume    = {4},
  journal   = {Journal of photonics for energy},
  publisher = {SPIE},
  address   = {Bellingham},
  issn      = {1947-7988},
  doi       = {10.1117/1.JPE.4.040997},
  pages     = {12},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {When state-of-the-art bulk heterojunction organic solar cells with ideal morphology are exposed to prolonged storage or operation at elevated temperatures, a thermally induced disruption of the active layer blend can occur, in the form of a separation of donor and acceptor domains, leading to diminished photovoltaic performance. Toward the long-term use of organic solar cells in real-life conditions, an important challenge is, therefore, the development of devices with a thermally stable active layer morphology. Several routes are being explored, ranging from the use of high glass transition temperature, cross-linkable and/or side-chain functionalized donor and acceptor materials, to light-induced dimerization of the fullerene acceptor. A better fundamental understanding of the nature and underlying mechanisms of the phase separation and stabilization effects has been obtained through a variety of analytical, thermal analysis, and electro-optical techniques. Accelerated aging systems have been used to study the degradation kinetics of bulk heterojunction solar cells in situ at various temperatures to obtain aging models predicting solar cell lifetime. The following contribution gives an overview of the current insights regarding the intrinsic thermally induced aging effects and the proposed solutions, illustrated by examples of our own research groups. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KimLeifheitMaassetal.2021,
  author    = {Kim, Shin Woong and Leifheit, Eva F. and Maaß, Stefanie and Rillig, Matthias C.},
  title     = {Time-dependent toxicity of tire particles on soil nematodes},
  series = {Frontiers in Environmental Science},
  volume    = {9},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Environmental Science},
  publisher = {Frontiers Media},
  address   = {Lausanne},
  issn      = {2296-665X},
  doi       = {10.3389/fenvs.2021.744668},
  pages     = {9},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Tire-wear particles (TWPs) are being released into the environment by wearing down during car driving, and are considered an important microplastic pollution source. The chemical additive leaching from these polymer-based materials and its potential effects are likely temporally dynamic, since amounts of potentially toxic compounds can gradually increase with contact time of plastic particles with surrounding media. In the present study, we conducted soil toxicity tests using the soil nematode Caenorhabditis elegans with different soil pre-incubation (30 and 75 days) and exposure (short-term exposure, 2 days; lifetime exposure, 10 days) times. Soil pre-incubation increased toxicity of TWPs, and the effective concentrations after the pre-incubation were much lower than environmentally relevant concentrations. The lifetime of C. elegans was reduced faster in the TWP treatment groups, and the effective concentration for lifetime exposure tests were 100- to 1,000-fold lower than those of short-term exposure tests. Water-extractable metal concentrations (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in the TWP-soils showed no correlation with nominal TWP concentrations or pre-incubation times, and the incorporated metals in the TWPs may be not the main reason of toxicity in this study. Our results show that toxic effects of TWPs can be time-dependent, both in terms of the microplastic particles themselves and their interactions in the soil matrix, but also because of susceptibility of target organisms depending on developmental stage. It is vital that future works consider these aspects, since otherwise effects of microplastics and TWPs could be underestimated.},
  language  = {en}
}