Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with 8.5% Efficiency Enabled by a New Highly Twisted Electron Acceptor Dimer

Hwang, Ye-Jin; Li, Haiyan; Courtright, Brett A. E.; Subramaniyan, Selvam; Jenekhe, Samson A.

doi:10.1002/adma.201503801

Cited by 256 publications

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“…Extensive studies have been carried out to develop polymeric and small molecule acceptors over the past decade 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. A number of high performance systems have been recently reported with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 8%, comparable to and exceeding BHJ organic solar cells made from fullerene acceptors in performance 15, 16, 17, 18…”

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“…One successful example was shown by Jenekhe and co‐workers, who reported on a 3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene‐linked arylene diimide acceptor (DBFI‐EDOT). The choice of suitable BDT‐based copolymer (PBDTT‐FTTE) and thiazolothiazole‐dithienosilole copolymer (PSEHTT) that paired with DBFI‐EDOT yielded a PCE of 8.5% with a high J sc (15.67 mA cm −2 ) and a high V oc (0.91 V) showing the importance of donor materials selection 17. In this contribution, we designed and synthesized a novel polymer donor, where a benzodithiophene (BDT) derivative with large π‐conjugated side chain is used as the electron‐rich donor subunit and 1,3‐di(thiophen‐2‐yl)‐selenopheno[3′,4′:4,5]benzo[1,2‐c]thiophene‐4,8‐dione is used as the electron‐deficient acceptor subunit (PBDTS‐Se).…”

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High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on a Selenium‐Containing Polymer Donor and a Twisted Perylene Bisimide Acceptor

et al. 2016

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A novel polymer donor (PBDTS‐Se) is designed to match with a non‐fullerene acceptor (SdiPBI‐S). The corresponding solar cells show a high efficiency of 8.22%, which result from synergetic improvements of light harvesting, charge carrier transport and collection, and morphology. The results indicate that rational design of novel donor materials is important for non‐fullerene organic solar cells.

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High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on a Selenium‐Containing Polymer Donor and a Twisted Perylene Bisimide Acceptor

et al. 2016

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“…[1][2][3][4][5] However, the commercialization of OPV requires the availability of inexpensive materials in large quantities such as poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). P3HT is readily scalable via flow or micro-reactor synthesis, even using 'green' solvents, whilst retaining a high degree of control over molecular weight and regioregularity.…”

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Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells

et al. 2016

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Technological deployment of organic photovoltaic modules requires improvements in device light-conversion efficiency and stability while keeping material costs low. Here we demonstrate highly efficient and stable solar cells using a ternary approach, wherein two non-fullerene acceptors are combined with both a scalable and affordable donor polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and a high efficiency, low band-gap polymer in a single-layer bulk-heterojunction devices. The addition of a strongly absorbing small molecule acceptor into a P3HT-based non-fullerene blend increases the device efficiency up to 7.7 ± 0.1% without any solvent additives. The improvement is assigned to changes in microstructure that reduces charge recombination and increases the photovoltage, and to improved light harvesting across the visible region. The stability of P3HT-based devices in ambient conditions is also significantly improved relative to polymer:fullerene devices. Combined with a low band gap donor polymer (PBDTTT-EFT, also known as PCE10), the two mixed acceptors also lead to solar cells with 11.0 ± 0.4% efficiency and a high open-circuit voltage of 1.03 ± 0.01V.Currently, the materials used in organic photovoltaics (OPV) are dominated by fullerene acceptors in combination with low band gap donor polymers which typically require complex and multi-step syntheses. [1][2][3][4][5] However, the commercialization of OPV requires the availability of inexpensive materials in large quantities such as poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). P3HT is readily scalable via flow or micro-reactor synthesis, even using 'green' solvents, whilst retaining a high degree of control over molecular weight and regioregularity. 6 The P3HT:60PCBM blend exhibits one of the most robust microstructures within OPV. [7][8][9] However, it has a limited open-circuit voltage (Voc) and short-circuit current (Jsc) in photovoltaic devices. 10 We have recently shown that solar cells using an alternative small molecule non-fullerene acceptor (NFA), IDTBR, when mixed with P3HT, can achieve power conversion efficiencies of up to 6.4%. 11 These results have revived interest in the use of P3HT for high performing devices and non-fullerene acceptors. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] The combination of stability, cost and performance for P3HT:NFA devices, make them a compelling choice for commercialization of OPV compared to devices using fullerenes, for which the high costs and energy involved are prohibitive for large scale production.Recently, multi-component heterojunctions (ternary or more) have emerged as a promising strategy to overcome the power conversion efficiency (PCE) bottleneck associated with binary bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. 3,4,[19][20][21][22][23]24 However, simultaneous increase in the Voc, Jsc and FF is a challenge in the ternary approach because of the trade-off between photocurrent and voltage. 23,25,26 Reports show ternary blends using fullerene acceptors, where the Voc is increased using a second acceptor (A2) with a higher electron affin...

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“…However, fullerene derivatives have several drawbacks such as limited spectral absorption, relatively low lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level, restricted optoelectronic tunability, poor morphology stability, and high costs due to low synthetic yields and tedious purification, especially for the higher performing C70 derivatives. For these reasons, small molecular9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and polymeric16, 17, 18, 19, 20 nonfullerene acceptors with wider and stronger spectral absorptions, wider tunable energy levels and structural features, have been actively explored as fullerene replacements for OSCs.…”

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Novel Dimethylmethylene‐Bridged Triphenylamine‐PDI Acceptor for Bulk‐Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells

Xiong

Zheng

et al. 2017

Advanced Science

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A novel, star‐shaped electron acceptor, DMTPA‐PDI3, derived from a planar dimethylmethylene‐bridged triphenylamine core with three acetylene‐linked perylene diimide (PDI) units is developed as a nonfullerene acceptor for organic solar cells (OSCs). DMTPA‐PDI3 manifests significantly reduced intramolecular twisting, enabling sufficient system‐wide π‐electron delocalization leading to broadened spectral absorption and raised lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level. As a result, higher and more balanced hole and electron transport properties are observed. Active layers for OSCs comprising DMTPA‐PDI3 acceptor and PBT7‐Th donor exhibit suppressed intermolecular aggregation, giving rise to uniform nanophase network formation. These OSC devices have afforded respectably high power‐conversion efficiency of about 5%.

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Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with 8.5% Efficiency Enabled by a New Highly Twisted Electron Acceptor Dimer

Cited by 256 publications

References 46 publications

High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on a Selenium‐Containing Polymer Donor and a Twisted Perylene Bisimide Acceptor

High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on a Selenium‐Containing Polymer Donor and a Twisted Perylene Bisimide Acceptor

Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells

Novel Dimethylmethylene‐Bridged Triphenylamine‐PDI Acceptor for Bulk‐Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells

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