Improving the performance of near infrared binary polymer solar cells by adding a second non-fullerene intermediate band-gap acceptor

The strategy of using ternary blends for the active layer becomes increasingly important in single-junction organic solar cells (OSCs), particularly for boosting the performance of high-performance non-fullerene-based devices. In this work, a non-fullerene small molecule named IT-4F with a moderate bandgap (1.58 eV) is introduced as the third component into the PBDB-T-2Cl:IXIC-4Cl binary blend, where IXIC-4Cl is a low-bandgap acceptor with absorption up to ∼1000 nm. Compared to the 11.99% and 13.47% efficiencies for the binary devices based on PBDB-T-2Cl:IXIC-4Cl and PDBD-T-2Cl:IT-4F, respectively, the ternary OSCs achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.96% when the weight ratio of PBDB-T-2Cl:IXIC-4Cl:IT-4F is 1.0 : 0.3 : 0.7. Through device and film characterization, IT-4F is shown to be an effective third component with functionalities including modulating the electronic properties, adjusting the frontier orbital energy levels, complementing the absorption spectrum and improving the active-layer morphology, which lead to significantly increased open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current (JSC) and fill factor (FF). Our method could be employed as a general approach to enhance the performance of nonfullerene OSCs based on low-bandgap small molecule acceptors.

[1]  Yufei Wang,et al.  Self-doping n-type polymer as a cathode interface layer enables efficient organic solar cells by increasing built-in electric field and boosting interface contact , 2019, Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

[2]  J. Yao,et al.  A nonfullerene acceptor with a 1000 nm absorption edge enables ternary organic solar cells with improved optical and morphological properties and efficiencies over 15% , 2019, Energy & Environmental Science.

[3]  Yufei Wang,et al.  The comprehensive utilization of the synergistic effect of fullerene and non-fullerene acceptors to achieve highly efficient polymer solar cells , 2019, Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

[4]  Wei Ma,et al.  Single‐Junction Polymer Solar Cells with 16.35% Efficiency Enabled by a Platinum(II) Complexation Strategy , 2019, Advanced materials.

[5]  C. Zhong,et al.  Unconjugated Side‐Chain Engineering Enables Small Molecular Acceptors for Highly Efficient Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells: Insights into the Fine‐Tuning of Acceptor Properties and Micromorphology , 2019, Advanced Functional Materials.

[6]  Jacek Ulanski,et al.  Single-Junction Organic Solar Cell with over 15% Efficiency Using Fused-Ring Acceptor with Electron-Deficient Core , 2019, Joule.

[7]  He Yan,et al.  Reduced Energy Loss Enabled by a Chlorinated Thiophene‐Fused Ending‐Group Small Molecular Acceptor for Efficient Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with 13.6% Efficiency , 2019, Advanced Energy Materials.

[8]  Wenkai Zhong,et al.  Achieving over 16% efficiency for single-junction organic solar cells , 2019, Science China Chemistry.

[9]  Tao Zhang,et al.  Achieving Over 15% Efficiency in Organic Photovoltaic Cells via Copolymer Design , 2019, Advanced materials.

[10]  Yang Yang,et al.  Efficient Tandem Organic Photovoltaics with Tunable Rear Sub-cells , 2019, Joule.

[11]  C. Zhong,et al.  Isomerization of Perylene Diimide Based Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with Excellent Fill Factor , 2019, Advanced science.

[12]  Wenkai Zhong,et al.  15% Efficiency Tandem Organic Solar Cell Based on a Novel Highly Efficient Wide‐Bandgap Nonfullerene Acceptor with Low Energy Loss , 2019, Advanced Energy Materials.

[13]  Xunjin Zhu,et al.  Panchromatic Ternary Organic Solar Cells with Porphyrin Dimers and Absorption-Complementary Benzodithiophene-based Small Molecules. , 2019, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[14]  C. Brabec,et al.  Efficient Polymer Solar Cells Based on Non-fullerene Acceptors with Potential Device Lifetime Approaching 10 Years , 2019, Joule.

[15]  Yongfang Li,et al.  Use of two structurally similar small molecular acceptors enabling ternary organic solar cells with high efficiencies and fill factors , 2018 .

[16]  A. Jen,et al.  Near‐Infrared Electron Acceptors with Fluorinated Regioisomeric Backbone for Highly Efficient Polymer Solar Cells , 2018, Advanced materials.

[17]  N. Borys,et al.  Multiple Roles of a Non-fullerene Acceptor Contribute Synergistically for High-Efficiency Ternary Organic Photovoltaics , 2018, Joule.

[18]  Fujun Zhang,et al.  Over 13% Efficiency Ternary Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with Tilted Up Absorption Edge by Incorporating a Medium Bandgap Acceptor , 2018, Advanced Energy Materials.

[19]  Yong Cao,et al.  Organic and solution-processed tandem solar cells with 17.3% efficiency , 2018, Science.

[20]  Feng Liu,et al.  High-efficiency small-molecule ternary solar cells with a hierarchical morphology enabled by synergizing fullerene and non-fullerene acceptors , 2018, Nature Energy.

[21]  Yang Yang,et al.  Next-generation organic photovoltaics based on non-fullerene acceptors , 2018 .

[22]  H. Ade,et al.  Modulation of End Groups for Low‐Bandgap Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells , 2018, Advanced Energy Materials.

[23]  Thuc‐Quyen Nguyen,et al.  Design of Nonfullerene Acceptors with Near‐Infrared Light Absorption Capabilities , 2018, Advanced Energy Materials.

[24]  Zhishan Bo,et al.  Nonfullerene Acceptors with Enhanced Solubility and Ordered Packing for High-Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells , 2018, ACS Energy Letters.

[25]  Yang Yang,et al.  Unique Energy Alignments of a Ternary Material System toward High‐Performance Organic Photovoltaics , 2018, Advanced materials.

[26]  Yongfang Li,et al.  Chlorine substituted 2D-conjugated polymer for high-performance polymer solar cells with 13.1% efficiency via toluene processing , 2018, Nano Energy.

[27]  F. Liu,et al.  Optimized Fibril Network Morphology by Precise Side‐Chain Engineering to Achieve High‐Performance Bulk‐Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells , 2018, Advanced materials.

[28]  Jie Zhu,et al.  Over 14% Efficiency in Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Chlorinated Nonfullerene Small‐Molecule Acceptors , 2018, Advanced materials.

[29]  Yongsheng Chen,et al.  Ternary Organic Solar Cells With 12.8% Efficiency Using Two Nonfullerene Acceptors With Complementary Absorptions , 2018, Advanced Energy Materials.

[30]  Jie Zhu,et al.  Over 14% Efficiency in Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by a Chlorinated Polymer Donor , 2018, Advanced materials.

[31]  Stephen R. Forrest,et al.  High fabrication yield organic tandem photovoltaics combining vacuum- and solution-processed subcells with 15% efficiency , 2018 .

[32]  Yongsheng Chen,et al.  A New Nonfullerene Acceptor with Near Infrared Absorption for High Performance Ternary‐Blend Organic Solar Cells with Efficiency over 13% , 2018, Advanced science.

[33]  Fei Huang,et al.  Nonfullerene Acceptor Molecules for Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells. , 2018, Chemical reviews.

[34]  F. Liu,et al.  Fine‐Tuning of Molecular Packing and Energy Level through Methyl Substitution Enabling Excellent Small Molecule Acceptors for Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with Efficiency up to 12.54% , 2018, Advanced materials.

[35]  Seth R. Marder,et al.  Non-fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells , 2018 .

[36]  Ke Gao,et al.  Dithienopicenocarbazole-Based Acceptors for Efficient Organic Solar Cells with Optoelectronic Response Over 1000 nm and an Extremely Low Energy Loss. , 2018, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[37]  Feng Gao,et al.  Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors. , 2018, Nature materials.

[38]  W. Choy,et al.  Highly Efficient Ternary‐Blend Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by a Nonfullerene Acceptor and Two Polymer Donors with a Broad Composition Tolerance , 2017, Advanced materials.

[39]  Yongfang Li,et al.  High Efficiency Ternary Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with Two Polymer Donors and an Organic Semiconductor Acceptor , 2017 .

[40]  Chain‐Shu Hsu,et al.  High efficiency ternary organic solar cell with morphology-compatible polymers , 2017 .

[41]  Yun Zhang,et al.  Molecular Optimization Enables over 13% Efficiency in Organic Solar Cells. , 2017, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[42]  H. Yao,et al.  Fine-Tuned Photoactive and Interconnection Layers for Achieving over 13% Efficiency in a Fullerene-Free Tandem Organic Solar Cell. , 2017, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[43]  Christoph J. Brabec,et al.  High-performance ternary organic solar cells with thick active layer exceeding 11% efficiency , 2017 .

[44]  Fujun Zhang,et al.  Highly Efficient Parallel-Like Ternary Organic Solar Cells , 2017 .

[45]  C. J. M. Emmott,et al.  Reducing the efficiency-stability-cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells. , 2017, Nature materials.

[46]  Ke Gao,et al.  Solution-processed organic tandem solar cells with power conversion efficiencies >12% , 2016, Nature Photonics.

[47]  F. Liu,et al.  Ternary Organic Solar Cells Based on Two Compatible Nonfullerene Acceptors with Power Conversion Efficiency >10% , 2016, Advanced materials.

[48]  I. McCulloch,et al.  Reduced voltage losses yield 10% efficient fullerene free organic solar cells with >1 V open circuit voltages† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c6ee02598f Click here for additional data file. , 2016, Energy & environmental science.

[49]  Yongfang Li,et al.  Side-Chain Isomerization on an n-type Organic Semiconductor ITIC Acceptor Makes 11.77% High Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells. , 2016, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[50]  Fujun Zhang,et al.  Alloy Acceptor: Superior Alternative to PCBM toward Efficient and Stable Organic Solar Cells , 2016, Advanced materials.

[51]  Luping Yu,et al.  Covalently Bound Clusters of Alpha-Substituted PDI-Rival Electron Acceptors to Fullerene for Organic Solar Cells. , 2016, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[52]  Fujun Zhang,et al.  Versatile ternary organic solar cells: a critical review , 2016 .

[53]  Wei You,et al.  Status and prospects for ternary organic photovoltaics , 2015, Nature Photonics.

[54]  Jianqi Zhang,et al.  Synergistic Effect of Polymer and Small Molecules for High‐Performance Ternary Organic Solar Cells , 2015, Advanced materials.

[55]  Daoben Zhu,et al.  An Electron Acceptor Challenging Fullerenes for Efficient Polymer Solar Cells , 2015, Advanced materials.

[56]  He Yan,et al.  Aggregation and morphology control enables multiple cases of high-efficiency polymer solar cells , 2014, Nature Communications.

[57]  T. Xu,et al.  Ternary blend polymer solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency , 2014, Nature Photonics.

[58]  Yongfang Li,et al.  Efficient ternary blend polymer solar cells with indene-C60 bisadduct as an electron-cascade acceptor , 2014 .

[59]  Yang Yang,et al.  Polymer solar cells , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[60]  Yang Yang,et al.  Tandem polymer solar cells featuring a spectrally matched low-bandgap polymer , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[61]  Yongfang Li.  Molecular design of photovoltaic materials for polymer solar cells: toward suitable electronic energy levels and broad absorption. , 2012, Accounts of chemical research.

[62]  N. Greenham,et al.  Ternary photovoltaic blends incorporating an all-conjugated donor-acceptor diblock copolymer. , 2011, Nano letters.