Printable and stable all-polymer solar cells based on non-conjugated polymer acceptors with excellent mechanical robustness

Abstract

All-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) trigger enormous commercial applications, and great progress has been made in recent years. However, from small-area devices to large-area modules, the poor adoption of the materials for printing methods and the large efficiency loss are still great challenges. Herein, three novel non-conjugated polymer acceptors (PTH-Y, PTCl m -Y and PTCl o -Y) are developed for all-PSCs. It can be found that non-conjugated polymer acceptors can effectively minimize the technique and efficiency gaps between small-area spin-coating and large-area blade-printing method, which can facilitate the preparation of large-area flexible device. By directly inheriting the spin-coating condition, the blade-coating processed device based on PTCl o -Y achieves an impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.42%, comparable to the spin-coating processed one (12.74%). Such non-conjugated polymer system also can well tolerate large-scale preparation and flexible substrate. Notable PCE of 11.94% for large-area rigid device and 11.56% for large-area flexible device are obtained, which is the highest value for large-area flexible all-PSCs fabricated by blade-coating. In addition, the non-conjugated PTCl o -Y-based devices show excellent thermal stability and mechanical robustness. These results demonstrate that the non-conjugated polymer acceptors are potential candidates for the fabrication of highly-efficient, large-area and robust flexible all-PSCs by printing methods.

A Vinylene‐Linker‐Based Polymer Acceptor Featuring a Coplanar and Rigid Molecular Conformation Enables High‐Performance All‐Polymer Solar Cells with Over 17% Efficiency

“…As shown in Figure 6f, the PM6:PY‐V‐γ‐based all‐PSC maintained ≈90% of the initial PCEs after 1000 consecutive bending cycles, which shows decent mechanical properties as the previous report. [ 72 ] As for the other two all‐PSCs, the flexible devices based on them suffer from a dramatic decrease on FFs and final performances (Figure S13a and Table S7, Supporting Information). There used to be an inverse correlation between the rigidity of polymer chains and mechanical resistance, however, the PY‐V‐γ‐based flexible device did not exhibit significant performance decrement relative to the other two material systems after bending experiments (Figure S13b, Supporting Information).…”

Rational Regulation of the Molecular Aggregation Enables A Facile Blade‐Coating Process of Large‐area All‐Polymer Solar Cells with Record Efficiency

“…To the best of our knowledge, the efficiency is the highest PCE for large-area all-PSCs by blade-coating to date (Figure 4c and Figure S13, Supporting Information). [47][48][49][50][51] The EQE curves are shown in Figure 4d, and the integrated J SC values of PBDB-T:PYSe, PBDB-T:PYSe-TC120, and PBDB-T:PYSe-TC120:PTClo-Y are 19.12, 20.83, and 22.09 mA cm −2 , respectively.…”

Realizing 17.5% Efficiency Flexible Organic Solar Cells via Atomic-Level Chemical Welding of Silver Nanowire Electrodes

“…However, their optoelectronic properties are usually sacrificed, because solution processing allows limited controllability of material dispersion and growth. 19 Among solution processable transparent electrode materials, random networks of silver nanowires (AgNWs) with the distinguished advantages of high conductivity, controllable aspect ratio, high light transmission, and robust bending durability, have been widely used as solution processed FTEs. 20,21 Moreover, AgNWs can be simply synthesized in various environment-friendly solvents like water and alcohols, making them compatible with various wet coating methods and industrial demands.…”

“…Organic solar cells (OSCs) have numerous potential applications such as in integrated photovoltaics and as power sources for portable and wearable devices because of their lightweight, mechanical flexibilities, and solution processing-based fabrication. , Power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) up to 19% have been reported for both single-junction and tandem OSCs based on glass substrates. − However, the efficiency of flexible OSCs is significantly lower than their rigid counterparts because of the unfavorable optoelectronic/mechanical properties of flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs) deposited on plastic substrates, such as vacuum thermal-deposited indium-tin oxide (ITO). , Recently, the application of metal oxide (TiO 2 or other dielectrics)/ultrathin metal (such as Ag)/metal oxide (OMO) structures as FTEs in OSCs has achieved great success, because the OMO structure enables to establish optical resonant cavity, where the related electrical conductivity and optical transmittance could be precisely controlled by changing the thickness and type of three layers, and realizes high-performance FTE. , Other solution processable materials, such as graphene, − carbon nanotubes, conductive polymers, , and metal nanowires, have also been explored. However, their optoelectronic properties are usually sacrificed, because solution processing allows limited controllability of material dispersion and growth …”