Highly Efficient, Stable, and Ductile Ternary Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells from a Two‐Donor Polymer Blend

Abstract

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are one of the most promising cost‐effective options for utilizing solar energy, and, while the field of OSCs has progressed rapidly in device performance in the past few years, the stability of nonfullerene OSCs has received less attention. Developing devices with both high performance and long‐term stability remains challenging, particularly if the material choice is restricted by roll‐to‐roll and benign solvent processing requirements and desirable mechanical durability. Building upon the ink (toluene:FTAZ:IT‐M) that broke the 10% benchmark when blade‐coated in air, a second donor material (PBDB‐T) is introduced to stabilize and enhance performance with power conversion efficiency over 13% while keeping toluene as the solvent. More importantly, the ternary OSCs exhibit excellent thermal stability and storage stability while retaining high ductility. The excellent performance and stability are mainly attributed to the inhibition of the crystallization of nonfullerene small‐molecular acceptors (SMAs) by introducing a stiff donor that also shows low miscibility with the nonfullerene SMA and a slightly higher highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) than the host polymer. The study indicates that improved stability and performance can be achieved in a synergistic way without significant embrittlement, which will accelerate the future development and application of nonfullerene OSCs.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 18, 2019
Source ID
10.1002/adma.201808279

Entities

People

  • Brendan T O'Connor
  • Harald Ade
  • Huawei Hu
  • Jeromy James Rech
  • Long Ye
  • Masoud Ghasemi
  • Nrup Balar
  • Samuel J Stuard
  • Wei You

Organizations

  • National Science Foundation
  • North Carolina State University
  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Department of Energy
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Polymer Science and Engineering.
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space