A Versatile Self‐Organization Printing Method for Simplified Tandem Organic Photovoltaics

Abstract

Despite recent dramatic enhancements in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) resulting in values over 10%, the manufacturing of tandem organic solar cells (OSCs) via current printing technologies is subject to tremendous challenges. Existing complicated tandem structures consisting of six or more component layers have been a major obstacle that significantly increases the complexity of printing processes and substantially sacrifices the PCE for printed devices. Here, an innovative printing method is reported that simplifies the fabrication process of the tandem OSCs. By developing a new printing technique using a nanocomposites containing interfacial and photoactive materials, a simultaneously printed bilayer of consisting of interfacial and photoactive layers, achieved through vertical self‐organization, is successfully demonstrated, resulting in tandem OSCs with only four printed layers. Moreover, by rigorously controlling the molecular weight of the interfacial materials, the self‐assembly characteristics are improved and an efficient tandem OSC is yielded with a PCE of 9.1% achieved in printed layers.

Printed Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with the Highest Efficiency of 9.5%

“…In addition, it should also be pointed out that ITO requires highly energy-intensive processing which accounts for more than 70% of the cost in the production of an OSC module, which is a major impediment to lower material and processing expenses of OSCs. [23][24][25][29][30][31][32] BHJ mixtures blade-printed from 0.6 vol% DIO showed quite strong scattering signals. Encouragingly, the large-area (2.03 cm 2 ) flexible ITO-free NF OSC with doctor-blade printing exhibits a remarkable PCE of 7.6%, which is the highest PCE reported to date in large-area flexible ITO-free doctor-bladed NF OSCs.…”

“…The big increase of 100 mV in V oc has not been reported in NF OSCs with a tiny amount of DIO addition. [23][24][25][29][30][31][32] To understand the function of DIO in PTB7-Th:ITIC BHJ formed by doctor-blading, we utilize a transient monitoring technique to track the drying processes of the three NF blend films (see Figure S5 in the Supporting Information). The optimal performance of doctor-bladed OSC is superior to the controlled spin-coating one with a PCE of 9.31%, indicating the effectiveness of the doctor-blading technique in production of NF OSCs.…”

Advances in Solution‐Processed Multijunction Organic Solar Cells

“…Lee et al adapted a concept first introduced by Wei et al for single‐junction OPV devices to tandem solar cells. The idea is to process both the photoactive components and interlayer material from the same solution.…”

One‐Step Blade‐Coated Highly Efficient Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with a Self‐Assembled Interfacial Layer Enabled by Solvent Vapor Annealing

“…Moreover, the integral current density values deduced from EQE spectra match well with those obtained from the J–V measurements (Table ). The PCEs of one‐step fullerene/NF OSCs fabricated by doctor blade in previous reports are presented in Figure c . It can be seen that our one‐step doctor‐bladed OSCs with a conventional NF system show the very high PCEs among the reported results, due to the optimized electrical property of IL through SVA.…”

“…The PCE of one‐step printing type‐I device with SVA treatment is 38% higher than 8.05% of type‐I device without SVA. To the best of our knowledge, the obtained PCE value of >11% is one of the highest values reported to date for one‐step printed OSCs featuring a self‐assembled IL . For comparison, two‐step doctor‐blade printing OSC was also produced with varying PFN thickness, substrate temperature as well as SVA treatment (Figure S4–6, Table S4–6, Supporting Information).…”