Enabling High Efficiency of Hydrocarbon‐Solvent Processed Organic Solar Cells through Balanced Charge Generation and Non‐Radiative Loss

Abstract

Using non‐halogenated solvents to process organic solar cells is preferable because they are less harmful to human health. However, it is challenging to mitigate the delicate trade‐offs between solubility and pre‐aggregation of organic semiconductors to maintain similar high device efficiencies as those processed by chlorinated solvents. The need for rigorous control of the kinetics between processing temperature and delay time inevitably complicates device processing for achieving reproducible performance. Herein, the authors develop a facile method to achieve proper solubility and pre‐aggregation in non‐halogenated solvents by selecting suitable donor/acceptor materials and subtle tuning of solvent compositions. This results in films with a high degree of ordering and suitably sized phase separation. Solar cells derived from this process can achieve a high power conversion efficiency up to 18%, which is the highest value reported for non‐halogenated solvent processed devices. This impressive result is achieved through synergistically reduced non‐radiative loss and enhanced charge generation.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 03, 2021
Source ID
10.1002/aenm.202101768

Entities

People

  • Alex K.‐y. Jen
  • Baobing Fan
  • Changduk Yang
  • Fei Huang
  • Francis Lin
  • Huiting Fu
  • Jiyeon Oh
  • Lei Ying
  • Ning Li
  • Qunping Fan
  • Wei Gao
  • Wen Jung Li
  • Zonglong Zhu

Organizations

  • City University of Hong Kong
  • Electrochemical Society
  • Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • Glaucoma Research Foundation
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology
  • University of Washington

Tags

Readers

  • Polymer Science and Engineering.
  • Polymer Science and Technology
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics