15.4% Efficiency all-polymer solar cells

We report all-polymer solar cells(All-PSCs) with record-high power conversion efficiency(PCE) through tuning the molecular weights of the polymer donor(PBDB-T) to form optimal active layer morphology. By combining the polymer donors with a newly reported polymer acceptor(PJ1), an unprecedented high PCE of 15.4% and fill factor over 75% were achieved for the AllPSCs with the medium molecular weight polymer donor(PBDB-T_(MW)), which is the highest value for All-PSCs reported so far.Detailed morphology investigation revealed that the proper phase separation in the PBDB-T_(MW):PJ1 blend should account for the superior device performance as PBDB-T_(MW) exhibits appropriate miscibility with the polymer acceptor PJ1. These results demonstrated that the device performance of All-PSCs could be fully comparable to that of small molecular acceptor-based PSCs. The formation of optimized morphology via precise control of molecular weights of polymer donors and acceptors is crucial to achieve this goal.     

6,7-dialkoxy-2,3-diphenylquinoxaline based conjugated polymers for solar cells with high open-circuit voltage

6,7-Dialkoxy-2,3-diphenylquinoxaline based narrow band gap conjugated polymers, poly[2,7-(9-octyl-9H-carbazole)-alt-5,5-(5,8-di-2-thinenyl-(6,7-dialkoxy-2,3-diphenylquinoxaline))] (PCDTQ) and poly[2,7-(9,9-dioctylfluorene)-alt-5,5-(5,8-di-2-thinenyl-(6,7-dialkoxy-2,3-diphenylquinoxaline))] (PFDTQ), have been synthesized by Suzuki polycondensation. Their optical, electrochemical, transport and photovoltaic properties have been investigated in detail. Hole mobilities of PCDTQ and PFDTQ films spin coated from 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) solutions are 1.0 × 10-4 and 4.1 × 10-4 cm2V-1s-1, respectively. Polymer solar cells were fabricated with the as-synthesized polymers as the donor and PC61BM and PC71BM as the acceptor. Devices based on PCDTQ:PC71BM (1:3) and PFDTQ:PC71BM (1:3) fabricated from DCB solutions demonstrated a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.5% with a Voc of 0.95 V and a PCE of 2.5% with a Voc of 0.98 V, respectively, indicating they are promising donor materials.     

Development of a phenanthrodithiophene-difluorobenzoxadiazole copolymer exhibiting high open-circuit voltage in organic solar cells

A phenanthrodithiophene (PDT)-difluorobenzoxadiazole (DFBO) copolymer, P-PDT-DFBO , was synthesized and characterized. Replacing a thiadiazole with an oxadiazole ring gives the synthesized polymer a highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) about 0.1 V lower, and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy levels lower than those of its benzothiadiazole (BT) counterpart, due to the more electron-deficient oxadiazole. Furthermore, since oxadiazole has a larger dipole moment than BT, P-PDT-DFBO exhibits greater aggregation strength than previously reported for P-PDT-DFBT . The low-lying HOMO level of P-PDT-DFBO gave about 0.1 V higher open-circuit voltage (V_oc), yielding over 0.9 V in a fabricated solar cell. From grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis, P-PDT-DFBO formed a favorable face-on orientation in both neat and blended films, indicating that the incorporation of an oxadiazole moiety can enhance V_oc without any orientation change in the solid state. However, a P-PDT-DFBO -based cell exhibited significantly lower J_sc and FF, and thus less power conversion efficiency, not >4.43%, due to its lower hole mobility than P-PDT-DFBT . One possible reason for poor performance may be the low crystallinity of P-PDT-DFBO in blended film. This may be caused by its strong aggregation tendency, leading to fast crystallization into a semiamorphous structure or to interference with the construction of long-range ordered structure. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 2646–2655     

A new oligobenzodithiophene end-capped with 3-ethyl-rhodanine groups for organic solar cells with high open-circuit voltage

A new solution-processable small-molecule donor material,named DRBDT3,comprised of oligobenzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]dithiophene as the backbone and 3-ethyl-rhodanine as the end-capped group has been designed and synthesized for application in organic photovoltaic cells.The oligobenzodithiophene derivative exhibits an absorption band from 300 to 640 nm.The film of DRBDT3 shows highly long-range ordering assembly and high mobility of 1.21×10 4 cm2 V 1 s 1.The new molecule shows a deep highest-occupied molecular orbital energy level.The device based on DRBDT3 as the donor and PC71BM as the acceptor exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 4.09%with a high open-circuit voltage of 0.99 V under AM.1.5G illumination(100m W cm2).     

Efficient ternary blend bulk heterojunction solar cells with tunable open-circuit voltage

To explore the potential of ternary blend bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaics as a general platform for increasing the attainable performance of organic solar cells, a model system based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as the donor and two soluble fullerene acceptors, phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (PC(61)BM) and indene-C(60) bisadduct (ICBA), was examined. In all of the solar cells, the overall ratio of polymer to fullerene was maintained at 1:1, while the composition of the fullerene component (PC(61)BM:ICBA ratio) was varied. Photovoltaic devices showed high short-circuit current densities (J(sc)) and fill factors (FF) (>0.57) at all fullerene ratios, while the open-circuit voltage (V(oc)) was found to vary from 0.61 to 0.84 V as the fraction of ICBA was increased. These results indicate that the V(oc) in ternary blend BHJ solar cells is not limited to the smallest V(oc) of the corresponding binary blend solar cells but can be varied between the extreme V(oc) values without significant effect on the J(sc) or FF. By extension, this result suggests that ternary blends provide a potentially effective route toward maximizing the attainable J(sc)V(oc) product (which is directly proportional to the solar cell efficiency) in BHJ solar cells and that with judicious selection of donor and acceptor components, solar cells with efficiencies exceeding the theoretical limits for binary blend solar cells could be possible without sacrificing the simplicity of a single active-layer processing step.     

Enhanced open-circuit voltage in methoxyl substituted benzodithiophene-based polymer solar cells

The open-circuit voltage (V _oc) is one of the important parameters that influence the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of polymer solar cells. Its value is mainly determined by the energy level offset between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the donor and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the acceptor. Therefore, decreasing the HOMO value of the polymer could lead to a high V _oc and thus increasing the cell efficiency. Here we report a facile way to lower the polymer HOMO energy level by using methoxyl substituted-benzodithiophene (BDT) unit. The polymer with the methoxyl functionl group (POBDT(S)-T1) exhibited a HOMO value of–5.65 eV, which is deeper than that (–5.52 eV) of polymer without methoxyl unit (PBDT(S)-T1). As a result, POBDT(S)-T1-based solar cells show a high V _oc of 0.98 V and PCE of 9.2%. In contrast, PBDT(S)-T1-based devices show a relatively lower V _oc of 0.89 V and a moderate PCE of 7.4%. The results suggest that the involvement of methoxyl group into conjugated copolymers can efficiencly lower their HOMO energy levels.     

Improving open-circuit voltage by a chlorinated polymer donor endows binary organic solar cells efficiencies over 17%

Power conversion efficiency(PCE) of single-junction polymer solar cells(PSCs) has made a remarkable breakthrough recently.Plenty of work was reported to achieve PCEs higher than 16% derived from the PM6:Y6 binary system.To further increase the PCEs of binary OSCs incorporating small molecular acceptor(SMA) Y6,we substituted PM6 with PM7 due to the deeper highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO) of PM7.Consequently,the PM7:Y6 has achieved PCEs as high as 17.0% by the hotcast method,due to the improved open-circuit voltage(V_(OC)).Compared with PM6,the lower HOMO of PM7 increases the gap between E_(LUMO-donor) and E_(HOMO-acceptor),which is proportional to V_(OC).This research provides a high PCE for single-junction binary PSCs,which is meaningful for device fabrication related to PM7 and commercialization of PSCs.     

Novel polymer acceptors achieving 10.18% efficiency for all-polymer solar cells

Polymer acceptors based on extended fused ring p skeleton has been proven to be promising candidates for all-polymer solar cells(all-PSCs), due to their remarkable improved light absorption than the traditional imide-based polymer acceptors. To expand structural diversity of the polymer acceptors, herein,two polymer acceptors PSF-IDIC and PSi-IDIC with extended fused ring p skeleton are developed by copolymerization of 2,20-((2 Z,20 Z)-((4,4,9,9-tetrahexadecyl-4,9-dihydro-s-indaceno [1,2-b:5,6-b']dithio phene-2,7-diyl)bis(methanylylidene))bis(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1 H-indene-2,1-diylidene))dimalononitrile(IDIC-C16) block with sulfur(S) and fluorine(F) functionalized benzodithiophene(BDT) unit and silicon(Si) atom functionalized BDT unit, respectively. Both polymer acceptors exhibit strong light absorption.The PSF-IDIC exhibits similar energy levels and slightly higher absorption coefficient relative to the PSi-IDIC. After blended with the donor polymer PM6, the functional atoms on the polymer acceptors show quite different effect on the device performance. Both of the acceptors deliver a notably high open circuit voltage(V_OC) of the devices, but PSi-IDIC achieves higher V OCthan PSF-IDIC. All-PSC based on PM6:PSi-IDIC attains a power conversion efficiency(PCE) of 8.29%, while PM6:PSF-IDIC-based device achieves a much higher PCE of 10.18%, which is one of the highest values for the all-PSCs reported so far. The superior device performance of PM6:PSF-IDIC is attributed to its higher exciton dissociation and charge transport, decreased charge recombination, and optimized morphology than PM6:PSi-IDIC counterpart. These results suggest that optimizing the functional atoms of the side chain provide an effective strategy to develop high performance polymer acceptors for all-PSCs.     

8.0% Efficient all-polymer solar cells based on novel starburst polymer acceptors

The polymer N2200, with its π-conjugated backbone composed of alternating naphthalene diimide(NDI) and bithiophene(DT)units, has been widely used as an acceptor for all-polymer solar cells(all-PSCs) owing to its high electron mobility and suitable ionization potential and electron affinity. Here, we developed two naphthalene diimide derivatives by modifying the molecular geometry of N2200 through the incorporation of a truxene unit as the core and NDI-DTas the branches. These starburst polymers exhibited absorption spectra and molecular orbital energy levels that were comparable to N2200. These copolymers were paired with the wide-bandgap polymer donor PTz BI-O to fabricate all-polymer solar cells(all-PSCs), which displayed impressive power conversion efficiencies up to 8.00%. The improved photovoltaic performances of all-PSCs based on these newly developed starburst acceptors can be ascribed to the combination of increased charge carrier mobilities, reduced bimolecular recombination, and formation of more favorable film morphology. These findings demonstrate that the construction of starburst polymer acceptors is a feasible strategy for the fabrication of high-performance all-PSCs.     

A 3D star-shaped non-fullerene acceptor for solution-processed organic solar cells with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.18 V

A novel 3D star-shaped acceptor based on triphenylamine as a core and diketopyrrolopyrrole as arms (S(TPA-DPP)) was synthesized. S(TPA-DPP) exhibited excellent thermal stability, strong absorption, and very high open-circuit voltage (1.18 V) in solution-processed organic solar cells based on P3HT:S(TPA-DPP).     

Over 9% efficiency achieved for all-polymer solar cells processed by a green solvent

正Bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells(PSCs)have attracted considerable attention owning to their potential for fabricating flexible,light-weight and large area solar cell panels via high-throughput roll-to-roll technologies.Compared with conventional PSCs comprising small molecule acceptors,such as fullerenes,all-polymer solar cells(all-PSCs)containing blends of p-type/n-type polymers in the photoactive layer provide advantages including easily     

Large open-circuit voltage polymer solar cells by poly(3-hexylthiophene) with multi-adducts fullerenes

Polymer solar cells (PSCs) made by poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with multi-adducts fullerenes, [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM), PC61BM-bisadduct (bisPC61BM) and PC61BM-trisadduct (trisPC61BM), were reported. Electrochemistry studies indicated that PC61BM, bisPC61BM and trisPC61BM had step-up distributional lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy. PSCs made by P3HT with above PC61BMs show a trend of enlarged open-circuit voltages, which is in good agreement with the energy difference between the LUMO of PC61BMs and the HOMO of P3HT. On the contrary, reduced short-circuit currents (Jsc) were observed. The investigation of photo responsibility, dynamics analysis based on photo-induced absorption of composite films, P3HT:PC61BMs and n-channel thin film field-effect transistors of PC61BMs suggested that the short polaron lifetimes and low carrier mobilities were response for reduced Jsc. All these results demonstrated that it was important to develop an electron acceptor which has both high carrier mobility, and good compatibility with the electron donor conjugated polymer for approaching high performance PSCs.     

Building mechanism for a high open-circuit voltage in an all-solution-processed tandem polymer solar cell

Additional post-processing techniques, such as post-thermal annealing and UV illumination, were found to be required to obtain desirable values of the cell parameters in a tandem polymer solar cell incorporated with solution-processed basic n-type titanium sub-oxide (TiO(x))/acidic p-type poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) interlayers. Subsequent to the fabrication of the tandem polymer solar cells, the open-circuit voltage (V(OC)) of the cells exhibited half of the expected value. Only after the application of the post-treatments, the V(OC) of a tandem cell increased from the initial half-cell value (～0.6 V) to its full-cell value (～1.2 V). The selective light-biased incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) measurements indicated that the initial V(OC) originated from the back subcell and that the application of the post-processing treatments revived the front subcell, such that the net photocurrent of the tandem cell was finally governed by a recombination process of holes from the back subcell and electrons from the front subcell. Based on our experimental results, we suggest that a V(OC) enhancement could be ascribed to two types of subsequent junction formations at the interface between the TiO(x) and PEDOT:PSS interlayers: an 'ion-mediated dipole junction', resulting from the electro-kinetic migration of cationic ions in the interlayers during post-thermal annealing in the presence of a low-work-function metal cathode, and a 'photoinduced Schottky junction', formed by increasing the charge carrier density in the n-type TiO(x) interlayer during UV illumination process. The two junctions separately contributed to the formation of a recombination junction through which the electrons in TiO(x) and the holes in PEDOT:PSS were able to recombine without substantial voltage drops.     

High open-circuit voltage organic solar cells enabled by a difluorobenzoxadiazole-based conjugated polymer donor

A new polymer donor based on 3,3′-difluoro-2,2′-bithiophene(2F2T) and difluorobenzoxadiazole(ffBX), named 2F2T-ffBX, is designed and synthesized. The organic solar cell(OSC) based on 2F2T-ffBX donor and [6,6]-phenyl-C60-butyl acid methyl ester([60]PCBM) acceptor exhibits a high efficiency of 7.3% with a high open-circuit voltage(V_(oc)) of 1.03 V. When blended with perylenediimide-based acceptor(PDI6), the corresponding OSC shows a higher V_(oc) of 1.19 V with a low energy loss of 0.50 e V but a much lower efficiency of 2.0%. The detailed analyses including charge generation, transport, recombination properties, and morphology were performed to understand the performance of corresponding devices.     

High-performance all-polymer solar cells with only 0.47 eV energy loss

The field of all-polymer solar cells(all-PSCs) has experienced rapid development during the past few years, mainly driven by the development of efficient polymer acceptors. However, the power conversion efficiencies(PCEs) of the all-PSCs are still limited by insufficient light absorption of the donor/acceptor blend and large energy loss in devices. We herein designed a polymer acceptor PYT1 constructed n-type molecular acceptor Y5-C20 as the key building block and blended it with a polymer donor PM6 to obtain an all-polymer photoactive layer. The optimized PM6:PYT1 all-PSCs achieved a record higher PCE of 13.43% with a very low energy loss of 0.47 eV and a photoresponse of up to 900 nm compared with the Y5-C20 based device with a best PCE of 9.42%. Furthermore, the PCEs of the PM6:PYT1 all-PSCs are relatively insensitive to the 1-chloronaphthalene(CN)additive contents and active layer thickness. Our results also highlight the effect of CN additive on PM6:PYT1 morphology, i.e.,charge generation, and transport find an optimized balance, and radiative and non-radiative loss is simultaneously reduced in the blend. This work promotes the development of high-performance polymer acceptors and heralds a brighter future of all-PSCs for commercial applications.     

16.3%Efficiency binary all-polymer solar cells enabled by a novel polymer acceptor with an asymmetrical selenophene-fused backbone

Despite the significant progress made recently in all-polymer solar cells(all-PSCs),it is still quite challenging to achieve high open-circuit voltage(V_oc)and short-circuit current density(J_sc)simultaneously in order to further improve their performance.The recent strategy of using selenophene to replace thiophene on the Y6 based polymer acceptors has resulted in significantly improved J_scs of the resulting all-PSCs.However,such modifications have also depressed V_oc,which compromises the overall performance of the devices.Herein,we present the design and synthesis of a novel polymer acceptor,PYT-1S1Se,created by inserting an asymmetrical selenophene-fused framework to precisely manipulate optical absorption and electronic properties.Compared with the selenium-free analog,PYT-2S,and symmetrical selenium-fused analog,PYT-2Se,the PYT-1S1Se derived all-PSCs not only deliver optimized J_sc(24.1 mA cm^?2)and V_oc(0.926 V)metrics,but also exhibit a relatively low energy loss of 0.502 eV.Consequently,these devices obtain a record-high power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 16.3%in binary all-PSCs.This work demonstrates an effective molecular design strategy for balancing the trade-off between V_oc and J_sc to achieve highefficiency all-PSCs.     

Organic photovoltaic devices with high open-circuit voltage based on oligothiophene derivatives

For the purpose of developing organic photovoltaic devices with good performance characteristics,we have fabricated twodevices using 4T-CHO,5T-CHO and PTCDA.The ITO/4T-CHO/PTCDA/Al device has a V_oc of 2.45 V and photoelectricconversion efficiency of 2.76%.The ITO/5T-CHO/PTCDA/Al device has a V_oc of 2.1 3V and photoelectric conversion efficiency of2.90%.The two devices have higher Voc(2.45 and 2.13 V).It is possible that intermolecular hydrogen bonding between-CHOgroup of nT-CHO and carboxylic dianhydride of PTCDA contribute to enhance the efficiency by promoting interfacial electrontransfer and eliminating the subconducting band trap sites.     

A novel dialkylthio benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene derivative for high open-circuit voltage in polymer solar cells

A new dialkylthio benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (S-BDT) was designed and synthesized and the polymer S-PBDT was prepared by a Stille coupling reaction. A high open-circuit voltage (V(oc)) of up to 0.99 V was achieved in polymer solar cells with PCBM.     

Conjugation expansion strategy enables highly stable all-polymer solar cells

The stability issue is one of the key factors hindering the commercial application of organic solar cells. All-polymer organic solar cell is one of the effective ways to solve the stability problem. In this work, we designed and synthesized two polymer donor materials PBDT and PDTBDT with different conjugation ranges, and demonstrated for the first time that extending the conjugation range of donor materials in all polymer solar cells can significantly improve device efficiency and stability. The experimental results of materials and devices show that PDTBDT with a larger conjugation range has stronger crystallinity and a more planar structure, which endows the active layer in its corresponding device with higher exciton dissociation probability, lower carrier recombination probability, more balanced charge transport properties and more favorable film morphology. As a result, the PDTBDT:PYF-T-o devices display an outstanding PCE of 13.38%, which is much higher than PBDT with smaller conjugation range based devices. Moreover, the PDTBDT:PYF-T-o device retains 0.86 of the initial PCE after over 500 h in the air atmosphere, exhibiting significantly improved stability. The improved stability is attributed to the enhanced moisture and air tolerance of active layer film thanks to the strong crystallinity of the donor material. These results demonstrate that the conjugation expansion strategy is one of the effective ways to obtain efficient and stable all-polymer organic solar cells.     

Polymerized A-DA'D-A type small-molecule acceptors for high performance all-polymer solar cells: progress and perspective

A-DA’D-A type polymerized small-molecule acceptors(PSMAs) have very recently received wide attention because they possess advantages such as synthetic flexibility, narrowed bandgap, low energy loss, and impressive mechanical properties. With efforts on design and synthesis of PSMAs and polymer donors, significant progress has been made on all polymer solar cells(allPSCs) with power conversion efficiencies exceeding 18%. In this review, we focus on structure-property-performance relationships of ...