Unique Energy Alignments of a Ternary Material System toward High‐Performance Organic Photovoltaics

Abstract

Incorporating narrow‐bandgap near‐infrared absorbers as the third component in a donor/acceptor binary blend is a new strategy to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics (OPV). However, there are two main restrictions: potential charge recombination in the narrow‐gap material and miscompatibility between each component. The optimized design is to employ a third component (structurally similar to the donor or acceptor) with a lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level similar to the acceptor and a highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level similar to the donor. In this design, enhanced absorption of the active layer and enhanced charge transfer can be realized without breaking the optimized morphology of the active layer. Herein, in order to realize this design, two new narrow‐bandgap nonfullerene acceptors with suitable energy levels and chemical structures are designed, synthesized, and employed as the third component in the donor/acceptor binary blend, which boosts the PCE of OPV to 11.6%.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 21, 2018
Source ID
10.1002/adma.201801501

Entities

People

  • Chaochen Wang
  • Chenhui Zhu
  • Hao‐wen Cheng
  • Hongxiang Zhao
  • Jiayu Wang
  • Jingshuai Zhu
  • Lei Meng
  • Pei Cheng
  • Pengyu Sun
  • Qianqian Zhang
  • Rui Wang
  • Sheng‐yung Chang
  • Tianyi Huang
  • Wei You
  • Wenchao Huang
  • Xiaowei Zhan
  • Yang Yang
  • Yuqiang Liu

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China
  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Peking University
  • University of California
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Quantum Chemistry
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.

Technology Areas

  • Space