Polymer solar cells have drawn a great deal of attention due to the attractiveness of their use in renewable energy sources that are potentially lightweight and low in cost. Recently, numerous significant research efforts have resulted in polymer solar cells with power conversion efficiencies in excess of 9% (ref. 1). Nevertheless, further improvements in performance are sought for commercial applications. Here, we report polymer solar cells with a power conversion efficiency of 10.02% that employ a non-conjugated small-molecule electrolyte as an interlayer. The material offers good contact for photogenerated charge carrier collection and allows optimum photon harvesting in the device. Furthermore, the enhanced performance is attributed to improved electron mobility, enhanced active-layer absorption and properly active-layer microstructures with optimal horizontal phase separation and vertical phase gradation. Our discovery opens a new avenue for single-junction devices by fully exploiting the potential of various material systems with efficiency over 10%.In recent decades, polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on conjugated polymers as donors (D) blended with fullerene derivatives as acceptors (A) have received an enormous amount of attention in renewable energy sources because of the promise of low cost, flexibility and large-area fabrication 2-5 . To date, the best reported power conversion efficiency (PCE) in PSCs is ∼9-10%, but most values remain below 10%, especially in single-junction PSCs 6-11 . It is therefore highly desirable to develop novel materials and devices for the creation of single-junction PSCs with excellent efficiencies.To achieve such high efficiencies, energy loss in PSCs should be minimized. In general, energy loss originates directly from the reflection, transmission, exciton recombination and exciton annihilation of active and/or interface layers, as well as the accumulation on electrodes. The key is therefore to develop suitable materials for active and interfacial layers that can significantly reduce the loss of energy. For active-layer materials, considerable progress has been demonstrated with broadband absorption and high carrier mobility, resulting in state-of-the-art single-junction PSCs with PCEs up to ∼10% 12,13 . Meanwhile, triple-junction tandem devices have also been developed that achieve a high PCE of 11.5%, by combining different high-performance active-layer materials [14][15][16] . Before the studies on active-layer materials and devices, the interlayer between the cathode and active layer was also thought to be an important factor in the realization of highly efficient PSCs by avoiding the accumulation of excitons. The selection of proper electrodes with matched workfunctions is an effective method to reduce this accumulation and improve efficiency. However, the availability of suitable electrodes is limited for the emerging active-layer materials of different energy levels, so some investigators have suggested using an interfacial layer between the active layer and electro...
Conductive patterns with line widths of 5-10 µm are successfully fabricated by utilizing the coffee-ring effect in inkjet printing, resulting in transmittance values of up to 91.2% in the visible to near-infrared region. This non-lithographic approach broadens the range of fabrication procedures that can be used to create various nanoparticle-based microstructures and electronic devices.
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