A Chlorinated Donor Polymer Achieving High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells with a Wide Range of Polymer Molecular Weight

In the field of non‐fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs), compared to the rapid development of non‐fullerene acceptors, the progress of high‐performance donor polymers is relatively slow. The property and performance of donor polymers in OSCs are often sensitive to the molecular weight of the polymers. In this study, a chlorinated donor polymer named D18‐Cl is reported, which can achieve high performance with a wide range of polymer molecular weight. The devices based on D18‐Cl show a higher open‐circuit voltage (VOC) due to the slightly deeper energy levels and an outstanding short‐circuit current density (JSC) owing to the appropriate long periods of blend films and less ([6,6]‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester) (PC71BM) in mixed domains, leading to the higher efficiency of 17.97% than those of the D18‐based devices (17.21%). Meanwhile, D18‐Cl can achieve high efficiencies (17.30–17.97%) when its number‐averaged molecular weight (Mn) is ranged from 45 to 72 kDa. In contrast, the D18‐based devices only exhibit relatively high efficiencies in a narrow Mn range of ≈70 kDa. Such property and performance make D18‐Cl a promising donor polymer for scale‐up and low‐cost production.

[1]  K. Wong,et al.  Side‐Chain Engineering on Y‐Series Acceptors with Chlorinated End Groups Enables High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells , 2021, Advanced Energy Materials.

[2]  K. Wong,et al.  Alkoxy substitution on IDT-Series and Y-Series non-fullerene acceptors yielding highly efficient organic solar cells , 2021 .

[3]  H. Ade,et al.  Regio-Regular Polymer Acceptors Enabled by Determined Fluorination on End Groups for All-Polymer Solar Cells with 15.2% Efficiency. , 2021, Angewandte Chemie.

[4]  Yongfang Li,et al.  Achieving 16.68% efficiency ternary as-cast organic solar cells , 2021, Science China Chemistry.

[5]  Shangfeng Yang,et al.  A chlorinated copolymer donor demonstrates a 18.13% power conversion efficiency , 2021 .

[6]  Fujun Zhang,et al.  Approaching 18% efficiency of ternary organic photovoltaics with wide bandgap polymer donor and well compatible Y6 : Y6-1O as acceptor , 2020, National science review.

[7]  Xinhui Lu,et al.  Fluorinated End Group Enables High‐Performance All‐Polymer Solar Cells with Near‐Infrared Absorption and Enhanced Device Efficiency over 14% , 2020, Advanced Energy Materials.

[8]  H. Ade,et al.  Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells , 2020, Advanced Energy Materials.

[9]  H. Ade,et al.  Tailoring non-fullerene acceptors using selenium-incorporated heterocycles for organic solar cells with over 16% efficiency , 2020, Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

[10]  Wenyan Yang,et al.  The Intrinsic Role of Molecular Mass and Polydispersity Index in High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Polymer Solar Cells , 2020, Advanced Energy Materials.

[11]  H. Ade,et al.  Random Polymerization Strategy Leads to a Family of Donor Polymers Enabling Well‐Controlled Morphology and Multiple Cases of High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells , 2020, Advanced materials.

[12]  Ruipeng Li,et al.  Highly efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells enabled by a delayed processing method using a non-halogenated solvent , 2020, Energy & Environmental Science.

[13]  A. Emwas,et al.  A Simple n-Dopant Derived from Diquat Boosts the Efficiency of Organic Solar Cells to 18.3% , 2020 .

[14]  H. Ade,et al.  Deciphering the Role of Chalcogen-Containing Heterocycles in Nonfullerene Acceptors for Organic Solar Cells , 2020, ACS Energy Letters.

[15]  K. Wong,et al.  Enhanced hindrance from phenyl outer side chains on nonfullerene acceptor enables unprecedented simultaneous enhancement in organic solar cell performances with 16.7% efficiency , 2020, Nano Energy.

[16]  M. Leclerc,et al.  Reducing Voltage Losses in the A-DA′D-A Acceptor-Based Organic Solar Cells , 2020, Chem.

[17]  M. Zhang,et al.  Understanding the Effect of End Group Halogenation in Tuning Miscibility and Morphology of High‐Performance Small Molecular Acceptors , 2020 .

[18]  A. Jen,et al.  A Non-Fullerene Acceptor with Enhanced Intermolecular π-Core Interaction for High-Performance Organic Solar Cells. , 2020, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[19]  H. Ade,et al.  Thermodynamic Properties and Molecular Packing Explain Performance and Processing Procedures of Three D18:NFA Organic Solar Cells , 2020, Advanced materials.

[20]  K. Wong,et al.  Selective Hole and Electron Transport in Efficient Quaternary Blend Organic Solar Cells , 2020, Joule.

[21]  A. Jen,et al.  Adding a Third Component with Reduced Miscibility and Higher LUMO Level Enables Efficient Ternary Organic Solar Cells , 2020 .

[22]  Jianqi Zhang,et al.  Single‐Junction Organic Photovoltaic Cells with Approaching 18% Efficiency , 2020, Advanced materials.

[23]  Fujun Zhang,et al.  Over 14.5% efficiency and 71.6% fill factor of ternary organic solar cells with 300 nm thick active layers , 2020 .

[24]  Fujun Zhang,et al.  Alloy-like ternary polymer solar cells with over 17.2% efficiency. , 2020, Science bulletin.

[25]  Shangfeng Yang,et al.  18% Efficiency organic solar cells. , 2020, Science bulletin.

[26]  H. Yao,et al.  Organic photovoltaic cell with 17% efficiency and superior processability , 2019, National science review.

[27]  H. Ade,et al.  Alkyl Chain Tuning of Small Molecule Acceptors for Efficient Organic Solar Cells , 2019 .

[28]  Wenkai Zhong,et al.  Morphology optimization via molecular weight tuning of donor polymer enables all-polymer solar cells with simultaneously improved performance and stability , 2019, Nano Energy.

[29]  Ruixiang Peng,et al.  16.67% Rigid and 14.06% Flexible Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Ternary Heterojunction Strategy , 2019, Advanced materials.

[30]  H. Ade,et al.  Chlorinated Thiophene End Groups for Highly Crystalline Alkylated Non-Fullerene Acceptors toward Efficient Organic Solar Cells , 2019, Chemistry of Materials.

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

[32]  H. Ade,et al.  Rational Strategy to Stabilize an Unstable High‐Efficiency Binary Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with a Third Component , 2019, Advanced Energy Materials.

[33]  Christoph J. Brabec,et al.  Critical review of the molecular design progress in non-fullerene electron acceptors towards commercially viable organic solar cells. , 2019, Chemical Society reviews.

[34]  H. Ade,et al.  Quenching to the Percolation Threshold in Organic Solar Cells , 2019, Joule.

[35]  W. Ma,et al.  A Nonfullerene Acceptor with Alkylthio‐ and Dimethoxy‐Thiophene‐Groups Yielding High‐Performance Ternary Organic Solar Cells , 2019, Solar RRL.

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

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

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

[39]  He Yan,et al.  Material insights and challenges for non-fullerene organic solar cells based on small molecular acceptors , 2018, Nature Energy.

[40]  James H. Bannock,et al.  Progress in Poly (3‐Hexylthiophene) Organic Solar Cells and the Influence of Its Molecular Weight on Device Performance , 2018, Advanced Energy Materials.

[41]  Yang Yang,et al.  Transparent Polymer Photovoltaics for Solar Energy Harvesting and Beyond , 2018, Joule.

[42]  R. Resel,et al.  The effect of polymer molecular weight on the performance of PTB7-Th:O-IDTBR non-fullerene organic solar cells , 2018 .

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

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

[45]  Joshua H. Carpenter,et al.  Quantitative relations between interaction parameter, miscibility and function in organic solar cells , 2018, Nature Materials.

[46]  Joshua H. Carpenter,et al.  A Facile Method to Fine‐Tune Polymer Aggregation Properties and Blend Morphology of Polymer Solar Cells Using Donor Polymers with Randomly Distributed Alkyl Chains , 2018 .

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

[48]  James H. Bannock,et al.  Burn‐in Free Nonfullerene‐Based Organic Solar Cells , 2017 .

[49]  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.

[50]  Zhishan Bo,et al.  Ternary‐Blend Polymer Solar Cells Combining Fullerene and Nonfullerene Acceptors to Synergistically Boost the Photovoltaic Performance , 2016, Advanced materials.

[51]  Pei Cheng,et al.  Stability of organic solar cells: challenges and strategies. , 2016, Chemical Society reviews.

[52]  H. Ade,et al.  Efficient organic solar cells processed from hydrocarbon solvents , 2016, Nature Energy.

[53]  Luping Yu,et al.  Recent Advances in Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells. , 2015, Chemical reviews.

[54]  H. Ade,et al.  A Large‐Bandgap Conjugated Polymer for Versatile Photovoltaic Applications with High Performance , 2015, Advanced materials.

[55]  P. Müller‐Buschbaum.  The Active Layer Morphology of Organic Solar Cells Probed with Grazing Incidence Scattering Techniques , 2014, Advanced materials.

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

[57]  Wei Jiang,et al.  Integrated Molecular, Interfacial, and Device Engineering towards High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Based Organic Solar Cells , 2014, Advanced materials.

[58]  Luping Yu,et al.  Understanding Low Bandgap Polymer PTB7 and Optimizing Polymer Solar Cells Based on It , 2014, Advanced materials.

[59]  John R. Tumbleston,et al.  Controlling Molecular Weight of a High Efficiency Donor‐Acceptor Conjugated Polymer and Understanding Its Significant Impact on Photovoltaic Properties , 2014, Advanced materials.

[60]  Yu-Shan Cheng,et al.  Fullerene Derivative‐Doped Zinc Oxide Nanofilm as the Cathode of Inverted Polymer Solar Cells with Low‐Bandgap Polymer (PTB7‐Th) for High Performance , 2013, Advanced materials.

[61]  Neil C Greenham,et al.  Polymer solar cells , 2013, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[62]  Yang Yang,et al.  A polymer tandem solar cell with 10.6% power conversion efficiency , 2013, Nature Communications.

[63]  A. Hexemer,et al.  Soft x-ray scattering facility at the Advanced Light Source with real-time data processing and analysis. , 2012, The Review of scientific instruments.

[64]  Yong Cao,et al.  Simultaneous Enhancement of Open‐Circuit Voltage, Short‐Circuit Current Density, and Fill Factor in Polymer Solar Cells , 2011, Advanced materials.

[65]  Wei Lin Leong,et al.  Differential Resistance Analysis of Charge Carrier Losses in Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells: Observing the Transition from Bimolecular to Trap‐Assisted Recombination and Quantifying the Order of Recombination , 2011 .

[66]  A. Roy,et al.  Recombination in polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells , 2010, 1010.5021.

[67]  Howard A. Padmore,et al.  A SAXS/WAXS/GISAXS Beamline with Multilayer Monochromator , 2010 .

[68]  Chain‐Shu Hsu,et al.  Synthesis of conjugated polymers for organic solar cell applications. , 2009, Chemical reviews.

[69]  Valentin D. Mihailetchi,et al.  Device Physics of Polymer:Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells , 2007 .

[70]  R. Friend,et al.  Self-organized discotic liquid crystals for high-efficiency organic photovoltaics. , 2001, Science.

[71]  J. Hummelen,et al.  Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions , 1995, Science.