Halogenated thiophenes serve as solvent additives in mediating morphology and achieving efficient organic solar cells

Guo, Lanhui; Li, Qingduan; Ren, Jiaxuan; Xu, Yuanjie; Zhang, Jiabin; Zhang, Kai; Cai, Yue‐Peng; Liu, Shengjian; Huang, Fei

doi:10.1039/d2ee02553a

Cited by 42 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, fine tailoring of the molecular structure will effectively modulate the radical characters of donors/acceptors, which can be demonstrated by the obvious changes in chemical/physical properties in OSCs. It will be of great importance to achieve high-performance near-infrared emitters with excellent photovoltaic device performance and stability. − Our studies provided a novel and important guideline for the design of donors and acceptors in OSCs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Open-Shell Donors and Closed-Shell Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

et al. 2023

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The active materials of organic solar cells are recognized to show a singlet ground state, and their photo-excited states have been widely investigated in previous work. Herein, we disclose the inherent open-shell singlet ground state of all the donors with obvious electron spin resonance signals. In contrast, the well-known highly efficient non-fullerene acceptors are almost electron spin resonance-silent. These results are carefully studied and confirmed via the combination of variable-temperature nuclear magnetic resonance, electron spin resonance, superconducting quantum interference device, and theoretical calculation. More interestingly, the ground state can be readily tunable between open-shell and closed-shell by changing the quinoidal character of their conjugated backbone. This work provides a new perspective to understand the intrinsic molecular structure of active materials in organic solar cells.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Open-Shell Donors and Closed-Shell Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

et al. 2023

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“…In contrast, pBDT-BTTA-2 :PC 71 BM and pBDT-BTTA-3 :PC 71 BM blends exhibited promising performance under the same initial screening, with better PCEs of 5.58 and 5.17%, respectively. Subsequently, 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) or 1-chloronaphthalene (CN) were utilized as high boiling point solvent additives in an attempt to improve device performance . The efficiencies of pBDT-BTTA-2 -based devices dropped with either DIO or CN.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

p-Type Conjugated Polymers Containing Electron-Deficient Pentacyclic Azepinedione

Shaw

Firdaus

et al. 2023

Macromolecules

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Bisthienoazepinedione (BTA) has been reported for constructing high-performing p-type conjugated polymers in organic electronics, but the ring extended version of BTA is not well explored. In this work, we report a new synthesis of a key building block to the ring expanded electron-deficient pentacyclic azepinedione (BTTA). Three copolymers of BTAA with benzodithiophene substituted by different side chains are prepared. These polymers exhibit similar energy levels and optical absorption in solution and solid state, while significant differences are revealed in their film morphologies and behavior in transistor and photovoltaic devices. The best-performing polymers in transistor devices contained alkylthienyl side chains on the BDT unit (pBDT-BTTA-2 and pBDT-BTTA-3) and demonstrated maximum saturation hole mobilities of 0.027 and 0.017 cm2 V–1 s–1. Blends of these polymers with PC71BM exhibited a best photovoltaic efficiency of 6.78% for pBDT-BTTA-3-based devices. Changing to a low band gap non-fullerene acceptor (BTP-eC9) resulted in improved efficiency of up to 13.5%. Our results are among the best device performances for BTA and BTTA-based p-type polymers and highlight the versatile applications of this electron-deficient BTTA unit.

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“…Despite numerous attempts in the development of organic solar cells (OSCs) such as synthesis of novel organic semiconducting materials, controlling the photoactive layer morphology, nano-engineering at the interfaces, understanding the detailed photo-physics of devices, etc., their power conversion efficiency (PCE) remains below the Shockley–Queisser limit. − The major hurdle in improving the performance of OSCs is overcoming the issues related to the fundamental tradeoff between ray optic path length and Augur charge-carrier recombination losses. Due to the lower charge-carrier mobility of organic semiconductors, the physical thickness of photoactive layers is needed to maintain as low as possible to minimize the recombination losses, which certainly limits light absorption. − To overcome this issue, researchers have designed an optically thick medium by employing the elevated local density of optical states (LDOS) in physically thin photoactive layers, using many innovative strategies such as diffraction gratings, V-shaped light trapping structures, photonic crystals, and metal nanostructures. ,− Among these methods, incorporating the plasmonic metal nanostructures is a simple and effective way to attain higher LDOS, which can provide absorption enhancement factors several times higher than the Yablonovitch limit. , Upon interaction with incident light, the metal nanostructures induce two radiative plasmonic effects, near-field enhancement, and far-field scattering, which considerably increase the electric field intensity and optical path length inside the active layer, respectively. , These effects crucially depend on the size and the location of metal nanostructures in the devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic Plasmonic Responses of Multi-Shaped Au Nanostructures Hybridized with Few-Layer WS₂ Nanosheets for Organic Solar Cells

Abhijith

Suthar

Karak

2023

ACS Appl. Nano Mater.

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Raising the photocurrent and successively achieving a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) in organic solar cells (OSCs) with physically thin photoactive layers is usually a highly challenging task because of their excitonic nature. Herein, we utilized the synergistic plasmonic effects of multi-shaped Au nanostructures (diameter/edge length ∼50 nm) hybridized with few-layer WS 2 nanosheets in improving the photocurrent of fullerene and non-fullerene-based OSCs. A PCE enhancement of more than 15% and an external quantum efficiency improvement in a broad wavelength range of 350−700 nm were demonstrated by incorporating these Au-WS 2 nanohybrids as an interlayer between hole transport and photoactive layers. The PCE enhancement was mainly due to the improved photocurrent (∼12.41%) via broad-range plasmonic effects of Au nanostructures. Finite-difference time-domain simulations were performed to comprehensively study the plasmonic responses, such as scattering efficiency, direction-dependent scattering, and near-field effects of individual nanostructures. The effective plasmonic range over 350−700 nm and more than 50% forward light scattering indicated that these hybridized Au nanostructures are highly suitable candidates to couple the incident light into the active layer. Near-field intensity enhancement and subsequent enhancement in absorption density confirmed the elevated local density of optical states in Au-WS 2 nanohybrid-based devices. Therefore, the present study emphasizes the role of hybridized Au-WS 2 nanostructures in improving the light-harvesting capability of OSCs in a broad wavelength range, hence attaining a significant improvement in device photocurrent.

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Halogenated thiophenes serve as solvent additives in mediating morphology and achieving efficient organic solar cells

Abstract: Incorporating solvent additives in donor and acceptor solutions has been considered as effective strategy in reaching efficient organic solar cells. As the state-of-the-art photovoltaic materials have thiophene sequences along their...

Cited by 42 publications

References 54 publications

Open-Shell Donors and Closed-Shell Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

Open-Shell Donors and Closed-Shell Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

p-Type Conjugated Polymers Containing Electron-Deficient Pentacyclic Azepinedione

Synergistic Plasmonic Responses of Multi-Shaped Au Nanostructures Hybridized with Few-Layer WS₂ Nanosheets for Organic Solar Cells

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Halogenated thiophenes serve as solvent additives in mediating morphology and achieving efficient organic solar cells

Abstract: Incorporating solvent additives in donor and acceptor solutions has been considered as effective strategy in reaching efficient organic solar cells. As the state-of-the-art photovoltaic materials have thiophene sequences along their...

Cited by 42 publications

References 54 publications

Open-Shell Donors and Closed-Shell Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

Open-Shell Donors and Closed-Shell Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

p-Type Conjugated Polymers Containing Electron-Deficient Pentacyclic Azepinedione

Synergistic Plasmonic Responses of Multi-Shaped Au Nanostructures Hybridized with Few-Layer WS2 Nanosheets for Organic Solar Cells

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Product

Resources

About

Synergistic Plasmonic Responses of Multi-Shaped Au Nanostructures Hybridized with Few-Layer WS₂ Nanosheets for Organic Solar Cells