A novel PCBM-based n-type material, [6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric styryl dendron ester (PCBSD), functionalized with a dendron containing two styryl groups as thermal cross-linkers, has been rationally designed and easily synthesized. In situ cross-linking of PCBSD was carried out by heating at a low temperature of 160 degrees C for 30 min to generate a robust, adhesive, and solvent-resistant thin film. This cross-linked network enables a sequential active layer to be successfully deposited on top of this interlayer to overcome the problem of interfacial erosion and realize a multilayer inverted device by all-solution processing. An inverted solar cell device based on an ITO/ZnO/C-PCBSD/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag configuration not only achieves enhanced device characteristics, with an impressive PCE of 4.4%, but also exhibits an exceptional device lifetime without encapsulation; it greatly outperforms a reference device (PCE = 3.5%) based on an ITO/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag configuration without the interlayer. This C-PCBSD interlayer exerts multiple positive effects on both P3HT/C-PCBSD and PCBM/C-PCBSD localized heterojunctions at the interface of the active layer, including improved exciton dissociation efficiency, reduced charge recombination, decreased interface contact resistance, and induction of vertical phase separation to reduce the bulk resistance of the active layer as well as passivation of the local shunts at the ZnO interface. Moreover, this promising approach can be applied to another inverted solar cell, ITO/ZnO/C-PCBSD/PCPDTBT:PC(71)BM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag, using PCPDTBT as the p-type low-band-gap conjugated polymer to achieve an improved PCE of 3.4%. Incorporation of this cross-linked C(60) interlayer could become a standard procedure in the fabrication of highly efficient and stable multilayer inverted solar cells.

Six of three-component donor-acceptor random copolymers P1-P6, symbolized as (thiophene donor) m -(thiophene acceptor) n , were rationally designed and successfully synthesized by the palladium-catalyzed Stille coupling. The 4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b:3,4-b 0 ]dithiophene (CPDT) unit serves as the donor for P1-P4, while the benzothiadiazole (BT), quinoxaline (QU), dithienoquinoxaline, and thienopyrazine (TP) units are used as the acceptor for P1, P2, P3, and P4, respectively. P5 and P6 are structurally analogous to P1 and P2 except for using the dithieno[3,2-b:2 0 ,3 0 -d]silole (DTS) unit as the donor. Because the band gap lowering ability of the acceptor units in the polymer is in the order TP > BT > QU presumably due to the quinoid form population in the polymers, the optical band gaps can be well adjusted to be 1.2, 1.6, and 1.8 eV for P4, P1, and P2, respectively. It is found that the two bridged bithiophene units, CPDT and DTS, have similar steric and electronic effects on the P1 and P5 as well as P2 and P6, respectively, leading to comparable intrinsic properties and device performances. Bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells based on ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer:PC 71 BM/Ca/Al configuration were fabricated and characterized. Although P4 exhibits the lowest optical band gap, broadest absorption spectrum, and highest mobility, the too low-lying LUMO level hinders the efficient exciton dissociation, resulting in a low PCE of 0.7%. Compared with poly [2,6-(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)(PCPDTBT), random copolymer P1 shows more blue-shifted, broader absorption spectrum, comparable mobility, and a higher PCE of 2.0%. In view of the fact that P1 shows a higher band gap with strong absorption in visible region, while PCPDTBT has a lower band gap to mainly absorb NIR light, a BHJ device with the active layer containing ternary blend of PCPDTBT/P1/PC 71 BM was investigated and achieved an enhanced PCE of 2.5%, which outperforms the devices based on the binary blending systems of PCPDTBT/ PC 71 BM (PCE = 1.4%) or P1/PC 71 BM (PCE = 2.0%) under the identical conditions. Such an improvement is ascribed to the complementary absorption and compatible structure of P1 and PCPDTBT polymers.

We report here two novel 2,7-fluorene- and 2,7-carbazole-based conjugated polymers PFDCTBT and PCDCTBT containing ladder-type heptacyclic structures with forced planarity. PCDTBT shows excellent solubility, low band gap and high hole mobility, leading to a power conversion efficiency of 3.7%.

No abstract