Growing interests have been devoted to the design of polymer acceptors as potential replacement for fullerene derivatives for high-performance all polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). One key factor that is limiting the efficiency of all-PSCs is the low fill factor (FF) (normally <0.65), which is strongly correlated with the mobility and film morphology of polymer:polymer blends. In this work, we find a facile method to modulate the crystallinity of the well-known naphthalene diimide (NDI) based polymer N2200, by replacing a certain amount of bithiophene (2T) units in the N2200 backbone by single thiophene (T) units and synthesizing a series of random polymers PNDI-Tx, where x is the percentage of the single T. The acceptor PNDI-T10 is properly miscible with the low band gap donor polymer PTB7-Th, and the nanostructured blend promotes efficient exciton dissociation and charge transport. Solvent annealing (SA) enables higher hole and electron mobilities, and further suppresses the bimolecular recombination. As expected, the PTB7-Th:PNDI-T10 solar cells attain a high PCE of 7.6%, which is a 2-fold increase compared to that of PTB7-Th:N2200 solar cells. The FF of 0.71 reaches the highest value among all-PSCs to date. Our work demonstrates a rational design for fine-tuned crystallinity of polymer acceptors, and reveals the high potential of all-PSCs through structure and morphology engineering of semicrystalline polymer:polymer blends.
High-performance ternary all-polymer solar cells with outstanding efficiency of 9.0% are realized by incorporating two donor and one acceptor polymers with complementary absorption and proper energy level alignment.
Solar‐driven interfacial evaporation is an emerging technology with a strong potential for applications in water distillation and desalination. However, the high‐cost, complex fabrication, leaching, and disposal of synthetic materials remain the major roadblocks toward large‐scale applications. Herein, the benefits offered by renewable bacterial cellulose (BC) are considered and an all‐cellulose‐based interfacial steam generator is developed. In this monolithic design, three BC‐based aerogels are fabricated and integrated to endow the 3D steam generator with well‐defined hybrid structures and several self‐contained properties of lightweight, efficient evaporation, and good durability. Under 1 sun, the interfacial steam generator delivers high water evaporation rates of 1.82 and 4.32 kg m−2 h−1 under calm and light air conditions, respectively. These results are among the best‐performing interfacial steam generators, and surpass a majority of devices constructed from cellulose and other biopolymers. Importantly, the first example of integrating solar‐driven interfacial evaporation with water wave detection is also demonstrated by introducing a self‐powered triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). This work highlights the potential of developing biopolymer‐based, eco‐friendly, and durable steam generators, not merely scaling up sustainable clean water production, but also discovering new functions for detecting wave parameters of surface water.
To explore the advantages of emerging all‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs), growing efforts have been devoted to developing matched donor and acceptor polymers to outperform fullerene‐based PSCs. In this work, a detailed characterization and comparison of all‐PSCs using a set of donor and acceptor polymers with both conventional and inverted device structures is performed. A simple method to quantify the actual composition and light harvesting contributions from the individual donor and acceptor is described. Detailed study on the exciton dissociation and charge recombination is carried out by a set of measurements to understand the photocurrent loss. It is unraveled that fine‐tuned crystallinity of the acceptor, matched donor and acceptor with complementary absorption and desired energy levels, and device architecture engineering can synergistically boost the performance of all‐PSCs. As expected, the PBDTTS‐FTAZ:PNDI‐T10 all‐PSC attains a high and stable power conversion efficiency of 6.9% without obvious efficiency decay in 60 d. This work demonstrates that PNDI‐T10 can be a potential alternative acceptor polymer to the widely used acceptor N2200 for high‐performance and stable all‐PSCs.
still far behind those of inorganic counterparts, such as sc-Si, GaAs, CdTe, CIGS, and Perovskite solar cells. [ 2 ] One of the main reasons is their low open-circuit voltage ( V oc ) due to the large energy loss per absorbed photon. The minimum energy loss ( E loss ) is defi ned by the equation: E loss = E g − qV oc , where E g is the optical gap of the main light absorber, in most cases the donor material. Decreasing E loss will enhance the V oc and thus PCEs of PSCs. [3][4][5] The minimum E loss for efficient charge generation in organic solar cells (OSCs) is suggested to be 0.6 eV, [ 6 ] and E loss below 0.6 eV often leads to ineffi cient charge generation and low quantum effi ciency, limiting the photocurrent and PCEs. [ 7 ] Typically, the E loss for polymer:fullerene based PSCs with high PCEs of 9%−11% is between 0.7 and 0.9 eV. [8][9][10] In contrast, Perovskite solar cells have a high V oc (> 1 V) with E loss of ≈0.5 eV, which partially accounts for their much higher PCEs of ≈20%. [ 11,12 ] The E loss values for inorganic solar cells, such as sc-Si, GaAs, GaInP, CdTe, CIGS-based solar cells are normally between 0.3 and 0.6 eV. [ 13 ] In Figure 1 and Table S1 in the Supporting Information, we summarize a selection of solar cells exhibiting either
One of the factors limiting the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs)is their large energy losses ( E loss ) in the conversion from photons to electrons, typically believed to be around 0.6 eV and often higher than those of inorganic solar cells. In this work, a novel low band gap polymer PIDTT-TID with a optical gap of 1.49 eV is synthesized and used as the donor combined with PC 71 BM in solar cells. These solar cells attain a good power conversion effi ciency of 6.7% with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.0 V, leading to the E loss as low as 0.49 eV. A systematic study indicates that the driving force in this donor and acceptor system is suffi cient for charge generation with the low E loss . This work pushes the minimal E loss of OSCs down to 0.49 eV, approaching the values of some inorganic and hybrid solar cells. It indicates the potential for further enhancement of the performance of OSCs by improving their V oc since the E loss can be minimized.
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