Search

A new D–A copolymer, poly(thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-alt-bithiazole) (PTTBTz),based on thieno[3,2-b]thiophene donor unit and bithiazoleacceptor unit, wassynthesized by the Pd-catalyzed Stille-coupling reaction for the applicationas donor material in polymer solar cells (PSCs). PTTBTzfilm possesses high thermal stability with 5% weight-loss temperatureat 450 °C, a lower-lying HOMO energy level at −5.20 eV,a higher hole mobility of 6.45 × 10–3cm2/(V s), and a crystalline structure. Photovoltaic performanceof the polymer was investigated with [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyricacid methyl ester (PC70BM) or indene-C60bisadduct(ICBA) as acceptor and with 3% DIO additive. The power conversionefficiency (PCE) of the PSC based on PTTBTz:ICBA (1:1w/w) reached 5.35% with a high Vocof1.03 V, a Jscof 8.55 mA/cm2, and an FF of 0.608, whereas the PCE of the PSC based on PTTBTz:PC70BM (1:1 w/w) was 4.57% with a Vocof 0.82 V, a Jscof 9.89 mA/cm2, and an FF of 0.563, under the illumination of AM1.5, 100mW/cm2. PTTBTzis one of the D–A copolymersthat shows better photovoltaic performance with ICBA as acceptor thanPC70BM. PTTBTz/ICBA could be a promising frontactive layer for high-efficiency tandem PSC because of its high Voc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible organic solar cells (OSCs) are considered one key component in wearable, intelligent electronics due to the unique capacity for highly flexible renewable energy sources. However, it is urgently required to enhance their efficiency, as it is far inferior to that of their conventional, glass-based counterparts. To boost the performance of flexible OSCs on plastic substrates, we here present a synergetic transparent electrode structure, which combines electrically conductive silver nanowires, a sol-gel-derived ZnO planarization layer, and imprinted light-trapping nanostructures. This synergetic composite electrode exhibits good properties in terms of optical transparency, electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and low-temperature processability. As a result, the single-junction non-fullerene-based flexible OSCs achieve a power conversion efficiency exceeding 12% due to the synergetic interplay between broadband light trapping and suppressed charge recombination loss. Moreover, these flexible OSCs are repeatedly bendable in both inward and outward bending directions, retaining over 60% of the initial efficiency after 1000 cycles of the bending test at a 3.0 mm radius. These results convey a clear depiction of the practicality of flexible OSCs in a variety of high-performance flexible applications.

We report our effort to unravel the origin of efficient operation of nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs), based on a poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl) thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl)](PTB7-Th):3,9-bis(2-methylene-(3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-indanone))-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2',3'-d']-s-indaceno [1,2-b:5,6-b']dithiophene (ITIC) blend system. The effects of buildup of space charges, charge extraction, and bimolecular recombination processes on the performance and the stability of PTB7-Th:ITIC-based regular and reverse configuration OSCs are analyzed. It is found that the high-performing inverted PTB7-Th:ITIC OSCs benefit from the combined effects of (1) suppression of bimolecular recombination enabled by an augmented effective internal electric field and (2) improvement of charge extraction by avoiding the holes passing through ITIC-rich region, which would otherwise occur in a regular configuration cell. The inverted PTB7-Th:ITIC OSCs possess a significant improvement in the cell stability and a high power conversion efficiency of ∼8.0%, which is >29% higher than that of an optimized regular configuration control cell (6.1%).

A new planar D2-A-D1-A-D2 structured organic molecule with bithienyl benzodithiophene (BDT) as central donor unit D1 and fluorine-substituted benzothiadiazole (BTF) as acceptor unit and alkyl-dithiophene as end group and donor unit D2, BDT-BTF, was designed and synthesized for the application as donor material in organic solar cells (OSCs). BDT-BTF shows a broad absorption in visible region, suitable highest occupied molecular orbital energy level of -5.20 eV, and high hole mobility of 1.07 × 10(-2) cm(2)/(V s), benefitted from its high coplanarity and strong crystallinity. The OSCs based on BDT-BTF as donor (D) and PC71BM as acceptor (A) at a D/A weight ratio of 3:1 without any extra treatment exhibit high photovoltaic performance with Voc of 0.85 V, Jsc of 10.48 mA/cm(2), FF of 0.66, and PCE of 5.88%. The morphological study by transmission electron microscopy reveals that the blend of BDT-BTF and PC71BM (3:1, w/w) possesses an appropriate interpenetrating D/A network for the exciton separation and charge carrier transport, which agrees well with the good device performance. The optimized D/A weight ratio of 3:1 is the lowest acceptor content in the active layer reported so far for the high-performance OSCs, and the organic molecules with the molecular structure like BDT-BTF could be promising high-performance donor materials in solution-processable OSCs.

The photovoltaic performance of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) has been improved greatly by using indene-C60 bisadduct (ICBA) as acceptor instead of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). However, the solvent of dichlorobenzene (DCB) used in fabricating polymer solar cells (PSCs) limited the application of the PSCs, because of the environmental problem caused by the harmful halogenated solvent. In this work, we fabricated the PSCs based on P3HT/ICBA processed with four low-harmful non-halogenated solvents of toluene, o-xylene, m-xylene, and p-xylene. The PSCs based on P3HT/ICBA (1:1, w/w) with toluene as the solvent exhibit the optimized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.5% with open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.84 V, short circuit current density (Jsc) of 7.2 mA/cm(2), and fill factor (FF) of 71%, under the illumination of AM 1.5G at 100 mW/cm(2). Upon using 1% N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) as a solvent additive in the toluene solvent, the PCE of the PSCs was greatly improved to 6.6% with a higher Jsc of 10.3 mA/cm(2) and a high FF of 75%, which is even higher than that of the devices fabricated with halogenated DCB solvent. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement shows that the crystallinity of P3HT increased with the NMP additive. The investigations on morphology of the active layers by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicate that the NMP additive promotes effective phase separation and formation of nanoscaled interpenetrating network structure of the active layer, which is beneficial to the improvement of Jsc and PCE for the PSCs fabricated with toluene as the solvent.

As researchers continue to develop new organic materials for solar cells, benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT)-based polymers have come to the fore. To improve the photovoltaic properties of BDT-based polymers, researchers have developed and applied various strategies leading to the successful molecular design of highly efficient photovoltaic polymers. Novel polymer materials composed of two-dimensional conjugated BDT (2D-conjugated BDT) have boosted the power conversion efficiency of polymer solar cells (PSCs) to levels that exceed 9%. In this Account, we summarize recent progress related to the design and synthesis of 2D-conjugated BDT-based polymers and discuss their applications in highly efficient photovoltaic devices. We introduce the basic considerations for the construction of 2D-conjugated BDT-based polymers and systematic molecular design guidelines. For example, simply modifying an alkoxyl-substituted BDT to form an alkylthienyl-substituted BDT can improve the polymer hole mobilities substantially with little effect on their molecular energy level. Secondly, the addition of a variety of chemical moieties to the polymer can produce a 2D-conjugated BDT unit with more functions. For example, the introduction of a conjugated side chain with electron deficient groups (such as para-alkyl-phenyl, meta-alkoxyl-phenyl, and 2-alkyl-3-fluoro-thienyl) allowed us to modulate the molecular energy levels of 2D-conjugated BDT-based polymers. Through the rational design of BDT analogues such as dithienobenzodithiophene (DTBDT) or the insertion of larger π bridges, we can tune the backbone conformations of these polymers and modulate their photovoltaic properties. We also discuss the influence of 2D-conjugated BDT on polymer morphology and the blends of these polymers with phenyl-C61 (or C71)-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). Finally, we summarize the various applications of the 2D-conjugated BDT-based polymers in highly efficient PSC devices. Overall, this Account correlates the molecular structures of the 2D-conjugated BDT-based polymers with their photovoltaic properties. As a result, this Account can guide the molecular design of organic photovoltaic materials and the development of organic materials for other types of optoelectronic devices.

Understanding effect of morphology on charge carrier transport within polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction is necessary to develop high-performance polymer solar cells. In this work, we synthesized a new benzodithiophene-based polymer with good self-organization behavior as well as favorable morphology evolution of its blend films with PC(71)BM under improved processing conditions. Charge carrier transport behavior of blend films was characterized by space charge limited current method. Evolved blend film morphology by controlling blend composition and additive content gradually reaches an optimized state, featured with nanoscale fibrilla polymer phase in moderate size and balanced mobility ratio close to 1:1 for hole and electron. This optimized morphology toward more balanced charge carrier transport accounts for the best power conversion efficiency of 3.2%, measured under simulated AM 1.5 solar irradiation 100 mW/cm(2), through enhancing short circuit current and reducing geminate recombination loss.

Two poly(thienothiophene) derivatives containing thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-4,4-dioxide unit were synthesized by Pd-catalyzed Stille coupling method. They were poly(3,6-dihexyl-thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-4,4-dioxide vinylene) (P2) and poly(2,5-diyl-3,6-dihexyl-thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-4,4-dioxide)-co-(2,5-diyl-thiophene) (P4). Poly(3,6-dihexyl-thieno[3,2-b] thiophene vinylene) (P1) and poly(2,5-diyl-3,6-dihexyl-thieno[3,2-b] thiophene)-co-(2,5-diyl-thiophene) (P3) were synthesized for comparison with P2 and P4. After sulfur oxidation on the thienothiophene units, the absorption peaks of the polymer solutions were red-shifted from 540 nm of P1 to 625 nm of P2 and from 445 nm of P3 to 520 nm of P4. The absorption peaks of the polymer films were red-shifted more significantly from 542 nm of P1 to 630 nm of P2 and from 480 nm of P3 to 564 nm of P4. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels also decreased a lot after the sulfur oxidation. In comparison with P1, the LUMO and HOMO energy levels of P2 decreased by 0.59 and 0.35 eV, respectively. The levels were 0.87 and 0.39 eV lower in the LUMO and HOMO energy levels of P4 than in that of P3.