Deterioration of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices by a minute amount of oxidized fullereneElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Synthetic procedure, UV-vis absorption spectrum, cyclic voltammogram and DSC chart for SIMEF-O2, and surface images, JV curves and IPCE spectra for OPV devices. CCDC 862481. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c2cc30262d

A chemical model of deterioration of a bulk heterojunction organic solar cell containing a photooxidized product of 1,4-bis(dimethylphenylsilylmethyl)[60]fullerene suggests that molecular oxygen degrades device performance by two mechanisms. Addition of SIMEF-O 2 to the active layer of organic photovoltaic devices decreased their performance.