A relatively wide-bandgap and air-stable donor polymer for fabrication of efficient semitransparent and tandem organic photovoltaics

Significance Organic semiconductors are promising candidates for fabrication of semitransparent and tandem solar cells due to their low-cost processing, light weight, and solution processability. Here, we synthesize a donor copolymer (poly{[2,7-(5,5-didecyl-5H-1,8-dithia-as-indacenone)]-alt-[5,5-(5′,6′-dioctyloxy-4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)]} [PDTIDTBT]) with relatively large bandgap and good stability. We show a stable and efficient semitransparent solar cell using graphene as electrode and achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.75% with average visible transmittance of 55%. We also demonstrate the application of the PDTIDTBT donor for tandem solar cell with PCE of up to 8.83% and long-term stability. Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have attracted tremendous attention in the field of thin-film solar cells due to their wide range of applications, especially for semitransparent devices. Here, we synthesize a dithiaindacenone-thiophene-benzothiadiazole-thiophene alternating donor copolymer named poly{[2,7-(5,5-didecyl-5H-1,8-dithia-as-indacenone)]-alt-[5,5-(5′,6′-dioctyloxy-4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)]} (PDTIDTBT), which shows a relatively wide bandgap of 1.82 eV, good mobility, and high transmittance and ambient stability. In this work, we fabricate an OPV device using monolayer graphene as top electrode. Due to the stability of PDTIDTBT in air and water, we use a wet transfer technique for graphene to fabricate semitransparent OPVs. We demonstrate OPVs based on the PDTIDTBT:Phenyl-C61/71-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) blend with maximum power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 6.1 and 4.75% using silver and graphene top electrodes, respectively. Our graphene-based device shows a high average visible transmittance (AVT) of 55%, indicating the potential of PDTIDTBT for window application and tandem devices. Therefore, we also demonstrate tandem devices using the PDTIDTBT:Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM) blend in both series and parallel connections with average PCEs of 7.3 and 7.95%, respectively. We also achieve a good average PCE of 8.26% with an average open circuit voltage (Voc) of 1.79 V for 2-terminal tandem OPVs using this blend. Based on tandem design, an OPV with PCE of 6.45% and AVT of 38% is demonstrated. Moreover, our devices show improved shelf life and ultraviolet (UV) stability (using CdSe/ZnS core shell quantum dots [QDs]) in ambient with 45% relative humidity.