Ternary Organic Solar Cells Based on Two Compatible Nonfullerene Acceptors with Power Conversion Efficiency &gt;10%

Liu, Tao; Guo, Yuan; Yi, Yuanping; Huo, Lijun; Xue, Xiaonan; Sun, Xiaobo; Fu, Huiting; Xiong, Wentao; Meng, Dong; Wang, Zhaohui; Liu, Feng; Russell, Thomas P.; Sun, Yanming

doi:10.1002/adma.201602570

Cited by 259 publications

(177 citation statements)

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“…[1][2][3][4][5] Combined developments in material and device engineering mainly contributed to such rapid advances. [53] These two NFAs are miscible and formed a homogeneous mixed phase, resulting in superior device performance, which offers a new direction in device optimization. However, it should be realized that For example, we have recently reported that high-performance ternary OSCs can be fabricated with a twisted perylene diimide acceptor (SdiPBI-Se) and a fused-ring electron acceptor (ITIC-Th).…”

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confidence: 99%

Morphology Control Enables Efficient Ternary Organic Solar Cells

et al. 2018

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Ternary organic solar cells are promising alternatives to the binary counterpart due to their potential in achieving high performance. Although a growing number of ternary organic solar cells are recently reported, less effort is devoted to morphology control. Here, ternary organic solar cells are fabricated using a wide-bandgap polymer PBT1-C as the donor, a crystalline fused-ring electron acceptor ITIC-2Cl, and an amorphous fullerene derivative indene-C bisadduct (ICBA) as the acceptor. It is found that ICBA can disturb π-π interactions of the crystalline ITIC-2Cl molecules in ternary blends and then help to form more uniform morphology. As a result, incorporation of 20% ICBA in the PBT1-C:ITIC-2Cl blend enables efficient charge dissociation, negligible bimolecular recombination, and balanced charge carrier mobilities. An impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.4%, with a high fill factor (FF) of 76.8%, is eventually achieved, which represents one of the highest PCEs reported so far for organic solar cells. The results manifest that the adoption of amorphous fullerene acceptor is an effective approach to optimizing the ternary blend morphology and thereby increases the solar cell performance.

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confidence: 99%

Morphology Control Enables Efficient Ternary Organic Solar Cells

et al. 2018

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“…[64,65] Concurrently, tuning composition of the ternary blend was found to give rise to a change in the energy of the charge transfer states, which is in turn directly related to V oc . [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] This subtle optimization point is also evident in the series of TSC devices studied here. On the other hand, V oc is also highly limited by the intrinsic nonradiative recombination losses, and this issue has recently been rigorously investigated for binary blend systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…[16] The second polymer is poly[(5,6-difluoro-2,1,3-benzothiadiazol-4,7diyl)-alt-(3,3′″-di-(2nonyltridecyl)2,2′;5′,2″;5″,2′″-quaterthiophen-5,5′″-diyl)] (PffBT4T-C 9 C 13 ) with a quaterthiophene donor unit and a difluorobenzothiadiazole acceptor unit and it gives high efficiency in binary BHJ solar cells. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] This intriguing morphological changes are highly connected to the electrical properties and device FF. The LBG polymer has enabled the extension of absorption to 900 nm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Critical Impact of Material and Process Compatibility on the Active Layer Morphology and Performance of Organic Ternary Solar Cells

Kim

Schaefer

et al. 2018

Advanced Energy Materials

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Although ternary solar cells (TSCs) offer a cost‐effective prospect to expand the absorption bandwidth of organic solar cells, only few TSCs have succeeded in surpassing the performance of binary solar cells (BSCs) primarily due to the complicated morphology of the ternary blends. Here, the key factors that create and limit the morphology and performance of the TSCs are elucidated. The origin of morphology formation is explored and the role of kinetic factors is investigated. The results reveal that the morphology of TSC blends considered in this study are characterized with either a single length‐scale or two length‐scale features depending on the composition of the photoactive polymers in the blend. This asymmetric morphology development reveals that TSC blend morphology critically depends on material compatibility and polymer solubility. Most interestingly, the fill factor (FF) of TSCs is found to linearly correlate with the relative standard deviation of the fullerene distribution at small lengths. This is the first time that such a correlation has been shown for ternary systems. The criteria that uniform sized and highly pure amorphous domains are accomplished through the correct kinetic path to obtain a high FF for TSCs are specifically elucidated. The findings provide a critical insight for the precise design and processing of TSCs.

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“…Solution-processable small molecule (SM) alternatives to polymer donors are proving particularly promising in bulkheterojunction (BHJ) solar cells with fullerene [1][2][3][4][5] and nonfullerene [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] acceptors. With fullerenes (e.g., phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester or its C 71 analog), BHJ solar cell efficiencies have progressed to >10% [13][14][15][16][17] and, while higher-mobility materials (>10 −3 cm 2 (V s) −1 ) with favorable self-assembly patterns and optimum thin-film morphologies are required to continue improving these efficiencies, the breadth of recent studies shows that material structure governs each one of those attributes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]Dithiophene–6,7‐Difluoroquinoxaline Small Molecule Donors with >8% BHJ Solar Cell Efficiency

Liang

Wang

Wolf

et al. 2017

Advanced Energy Materials

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In particular, in recent work, we showed that the development of BHJ morphologies between donor and acceptor components, [20] material processing, and optimization of thin-film morphologies via postprocessing treatments [21] is not independent of the substitution pattern and functional groups appended to SM donors. As a result, the rational design of SM donors with gradually improved BHJ solar cell efficiencies must concurrently address: (i) bandgap tuning and optimization of spectral absorption (inherent to the SM main chain) and (ii) pendant-group substitution promoting structural order and mediating morphological effects.In this contribution, we report on the rational pendant-group substitution and concurrent bandgap reduction in benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-6,7-difluoroquinoxaline SM donors, raising BHJ solar cell efficiencies from ≈6 to >8% with PC 71 BM, and we provide a detailed understanding of the role of the selective substitutions on material and BHJ device performance improvements. Taking advantage of the synthetic modularity of electrondeficient quinoxaline motifs, we show that the introduction of acrylate functions on the pyrazine ring is an effective approach to significantly increasing the electron affinity of the acceptor unit, in turn narrowing the optical gap of the SM donor. Importantly, our device examinations show that this discrete synthetic modification does not alter the propensity of benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-6,7-difluoroquinoxaline SM donors to order and form favorable thin-film BHJ morphologies with PCBM; carrier extraction in optimized BHJ active layers proceeds with notably suppressed geminate and bimolecular recombination, while the high open-circuit voltage (V OC ) of the BHJ solar cells is maintained to ≈1 V.In the design of symmetrical SM donors alternating donor and acceptor motifs (DADAD) setting their optical gap, two avenues have prevailed thus far: (i) swapping the donor [acceptor] units for more electron-rich [-deficient] motifs-albeit with distinctly different molecular structure [14,22] -and (ii) increasing [reducing] their conjugation length by replicating [removing] DA motifs [14] or, more commonly, by varying the number of rings involved in the main chain. [1,17] In either cases, the synthetic modifications generally impact SM self-assembly in thin films, solution-processing and device optimization procedures, [18,23] Solution-processable small molecule (SM) donors are promising alternatives to their polymer counterparts in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. While SM donors with favorable spectral absorption, self-assembly patterns, optimum thin-film morphologies, and high carrier mobilities in optimized donor-acceptor blends are required to further BHJ device efficiencies, material structure governs each one of those attributes. As a result, the rational design of SM donors with gradually improved BHJ solar cell efficiencies must concurrently address: (i) bandgap tuning and optimization of spectral absorption (inherent to the SM main chain) and (ii) pendant...

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Ternary Organic Solar Cells Based on Two Compatible Nonfullerene Acceptors with Power Conversion Efficiency >10%

Cited by 259 publications

References 58 publications

Morphology Control Enables Efficient Ternary Organic Solar Cells

Morphology Control Enables Efficient Ternary Organic Solar Cells

The Critical Impact of Material and Process Compatibility on the Active Layer Morphology and Performance of Organic Ternary Solar Cells

Benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]Dithiophene–6,7‐Difluoroquinoxaline Small Molecule Donors with >8% BHJ Solar Cell Efficiency

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