journal article·2022-11-10

Organic solar cells using oligomer acceptors for improved stability and efficiency

Youcai Liang, Difei Zhang, Zerun Wu, Tao Jia, Larry Lüer, Haoran Tang, Ling Hong, Jiabin Zhang, Kai Zhang, Christoph J. Brabec, Ning Li, Fei Huang

Nature Energy· Volume 7· Issue 12
Publisher page

Abstract

The power conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells (OSCs) have reached over 19%. However, the combination of high efficiency and long-term stability is still a major conundrum of commercialization. Here a Y6-analogue and a 2,2′-bithiophene unit are utilized to construct a series of oligomer acceptors to investigate the effect of molecular size and packing properties on photovoltaic performance. By altering the molecular chain length, we modify the thermal properties, crystallization behaviours and molecular packing and achieve an optimal microstructure and a more stable morphology in blend films. A combination of efficiencies over 15% and an extrapolated T80 lifetime over 25,000 h, which equates to an average lifetime exceeding 16 years in Guangzhou, is achieved for binary OSCs based on an oligomer acceptor. This work emphasizes the importance of oligomeric strategy in tuning molecular packing behaviours and blend morphology, leading to development of novel non-fullerene acceptors for stable and efficient OSCs.
Source: openaire · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics · Conducting polymers and applications · Perovskite Materials and Applications

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

References (58)

Show source-provided references
1. Zhang, J., Tan, H. S., Guo, X., Facchetti, A. & Yan, H. Material insights and challenges for non-fullerene organic solar cells based on small molecular acceptors. Nat. Energy 3, 720–731 (2018).10.1038/s41560-018-0181-5 ↗
2. Wan, X., Li, C., Zhang, M. & Chen, Y. Acceptor–donor–acceptor type molecules for high performance organic photovoltaics—chemistry and mechanism. Chem. Soc. Rev. 49, 2828–2842 (2020).10.1039/D0CS00084A ↗
3. Yuan, J. et al. Single-junction organic solar cell with over 15% efficiency using fused-ring acceptor with electron-deficient core. Joule 3, 1140–1151 (2019).10.1016/j.joule.2019.01.004 ↗
4. Cui, Y. et al. Single-junction organic photovoltaic cells with approaching 18% efficiency. Adv. Mater. 32, 1908205 (2020).10.1002/adma.201908205 ↗
5. Chen, S. et al. High-performance polymer solar cells with efficiency over 18% enabled by asymmetric side chain engineering of non-fullerene acceptors. Sci. China Chem. 64, 1192–1199 (2021).10.1007/s11426-021-1013-0 ↗
6. Li, C. et al. Non-fullerene acceptors with branched side chains and improved molecular packing to exceed 18% efficiency in organic solar cells. Nat. Energy 6, 605–613 (2021).10.1038/s41560-021-00820-x ↗
7. Liu, Y. et al. Recent progress in organic solar cells (part II device engineering). Sci. China Chem. 65, 1457–1497 (2022).10.1007/s11426-022-1256-8 ↗
8. Zhu, L. et al. Single-junction organic solar cells with over 19% efficiency enabled by a refined double-fibril network morphology. Nat. Mater. 21, 656–663 (2022).10.1038/s41563-022-01244-y ↗
9. Burlingame, Q. et al. Intrinsically stable organic solar cells under high-intensity illumination. Nature 573, 394–397 (2019).10.1038/s41586-019-1544-1 ↗
10. Li, Y. et al. Non-fullerene acceptor organic photovoltaics with intrinsic operational lifetimes over 30 years. Nat. Commun. 12, 5419 (2021).10.1038/s41467-021-25718-w ↗
11. Du, X. et al. Efficient polymer solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors with potential device lifetime approaching 10 years. Joule 3, 215–226 (2019).10.1016/j.joule.2018.09.001 ↗
12. Xu, X. et al. Interface-enhanced organic solar cells with extrapolated T80 lifetimes of over 20 years. Sci. Bull. 65, 208–216 (2020).10.1016/j.scib.2019.10.019 ↗
13. Qin, Y. et al. The performance-stability conundrum of BTP-based organic solar cells. Joule 5, 2129–2147 (2021).10.1016/j.joule.2021.06.006 ↗
14. Zhang, Z.-G. et al. Constructing a strongly absorbing low-bandgap polymer acceptor for high-performance all-polymer solar cells. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 13503–13507 (2017).10.1002/anie.201707678 ↗
15. Jia, T. et al. 14.4% efficiency all-polymer solar cell with broad absorption and low energy loss enabled by a novel polymer acceptor. Nano Energy 72, 104718 (2020).10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.104718 ↗
16. Sun, G. et al. High performance polymerized small molecule acceptor by synergistic optimization on π-bridge linker and side chain. Nat. Commun. 13, 5267 (2022).10.1038/s41467-022-32964-z ↗
17. Lee, J. W. et al. Efficient, thermally stable, and mechanically robust all‐polymer solar cells consisting of the same benzodithiophene unit‐based polymer acceptor and donor with high molecular compatibility. Adv. Energy Mater. 11, 2003367 (2020).10.1002/aenm.202003367 ↗
18. Qiu, B. et al. Highly efficient all-small-molecule organic solar cells with appropriate active layer morphology by side chain engineering of donor molecules and thermal annealing. Adv. Mater. 32, 1908373 (2020).10.1002/adma.201908373 ↗
19. Ye, W. et al. Nonfullerene all-small-molecule organic solar cells: prospect and limitation. Sol. RRL 4, 2000258 (2020).10.1002/solr.202000258 ↗
20. Rubinstein, M. & Colby, R.H. Polymer Physics (Oxford Univ. Press, 2003).10.1093/oso/9780198520597.001.0001 ↗
21. Fan, Q. et al. Over 14% efficiency all-polymer solar cells enabled by a low bandgap polymer acceptor with low energy loss and efficient charge separation. Energy Environ. Sci. 13, 5017–5027 (2020).10.1039/D0EE01828G ↗
22. Du, J. et al. Polymerized small molecular acceptor based all-polymer solar cells with an efficiency of 16.16% via tuning polymer blend morphology by molecular design. Nat. Commun. 12, 5264 (2021).10.1038/s41467-021-25638-9 ↗
23. Luo, Z. et al. Precisely controlling the position of bromine on the end group enables well-regular polymer acceptors for all-polymer solar cells with efficiencies over 15. Adv. Mater. 32, 2005942 (2020).10.1002/adma.202005942 ↗
24. Fu, H. et al. High efficiency (15.8%) all-polymer solar cells enabled by a regioregular narrow bandgap polymer acceptor. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 2665–2670 (2021).10.1021/jacs.0c12527 ↗
25. Wang, H. et al. Configurational isomers induced significant difference in all‐polymer solar cells. Adv. Funct. Mater. 31, 2100877 (2021).10.1002/adfm.202100877 ↗
26. Ni, Z. et al. Mesopolymer synthesis by ligand-modulated direct arylation polycondensation towards n-type and ambipolar conjugated systems. Nat. Chem. 11, 271–277 (2019).10.1038/s41557-018-0200-y ↗
27. Xin, J. et al. Cold crystallization temperature correlated phase separation, performance, and stability of polymer solar cells. Matter 1, 1316–1330 (2019).10.1016/j.matt.2019.06.011 ↗
28. Ghasemi, M. et al. Delineation of thermodynamic and kinetic factors that control stability in non-fullerene organic solar cells. Joule 3, 1328–1348 (2019).10.1016/j.joule.2019.03.020 ↗
29. Yu, L. et al. Diffusion-limited crystallization: a rationale for the thermal stability of non-fullerene solar cells. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 21766–21774 (2019).10.1021/acsami.9b04554 ↗
30. Ghasemi, M. et al. A molecular interaction–diffusion framework for predicting organic solar cell stability. Nat. Mater. 20, 525–532 (2021).10.1038/s41563-020-00872-6 ↗
31. Vezie, M. S. et al. Exploring the origin of high optical absorption in conjugated polymers. Nat. Mater. 15, 746–753 (2016).10.1038/nmat4645 ↗
32. Wang, R. et al. Understanding the microstructure formation of polymer films by spontaneous solution spreading coating with a high-throughput engineering platform. ChemSusChem 14, 3590–3598 (2021).10.1002/cssc.202100927 ↗
33. Du, X. et al. Elucidating the full potential of OPV materials utilizing a high-throughput robot-based platform and machine learning. Joule 5, 495–506 (2021).10.1016/j.joule.2020.12.013 ↗
34. Price, M. B. et al. Free charge photogeneration in a single component high photovoltaic efficiency organic semiconductor. Nat. Commun. 13, 2827 (2022).10.1038/s41467-022-30127-8 ↗
35. Jasiūnas, R. et al. Thermally activated reverse electron transfer limits carrier generation efficiency in PM6:Y6 non-fullerene organic solar cells. Sol. RRL 6, 2100963 (2022).10.1002/solr.202100963 ↗
36. Liu, W. et al. Theoretical exploration of optoelectronic performance of PM6:Y6 series-based organic solar cells. Surf. Interfaces 26, 101385 (2021).10.1016/j.surfin.2021.101385 ↗
37. Du, J. et al. High-performance all-polymer solar cells: synthesis of polymer acceptor by a random ternary copolymerization strategy. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59, 15181–15185 (2020).10.1002/anie.202005357 ↗
38. Lee, J.-W. et al. Donor–acceptor alternating copolymer compatibilizers for thermally stable, mechanically robust, and high-performance organic solar cells. ACS Nano 15, 19970–19980 (2021).10.1021/acsnano.1c07471 ↗
39. Lee, J.-W. et al. Flexible-spacer incorporated polymer donors enable superior blend miscibility for high-performance and mechanically-robust polymer solar cells. Energy Environ. Sci. 14, 4067–4076 (2021).10.1039/D1EE01062J ↗
40. Li, W., Liu, D. & Wang, T. Stability Of non-fullerene electron acceptors and their photovoltaic devices. Adv. Funct. Mater. 31, 2104552 (2021).10.1002/adfm.202104552 ↗
41. Zhao, F. et al. Emerging approaches in enhancing the efficiency and stability in non-fullerene organic solar cells. Adv. Energy Mater. 10, 2002746 (2020).10.1002/aenm.202002746 ↗
42. Liao, Q. et al. Highly stable organic solar cells based on an ultraviolet-resistant cathode interfacial layer. CCS Chem. 4, 938–948 (2022).10.31635/ccschem.021.202100852 ↗
43. Guo, J. et al. Revealing the microstructure-related light-induced degradation for all-polymer solar cells based on regioisomerized end-capping group acceptors. J. Mater. Chem. C. 10, 1246–1258 (2022).10.1039/D1TC05030C ↗
44. Xiao, J. et al. An operando study on the photostability of nonfullerene organic solar cells. Sol. RRL 3, 1900077 (2019).10.1002/solr.201900077 ↗
45. Duan, L. et al. Burn-in degradation mechanism identified for small molecular acceptor-based high-efficiency nonfullerene organic solar cells. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12, 27433–27442 (2020).10.1021/acsami.0c05978 ↗
46. Hu, H. et al. The role of demixing and crystallization kinetics on the stability of non-fullerene organic solar cells. Adv. Mater. 32, 2005348 (2020).10.1002/adma.202005348 ↗
47. Vakhshouri, K., Kozub, D. R., Wang, C., Salleo, A. & Gomez, E. D. Effect of miscibility and percolation on electron transport in amorphous poly(3-hexylthiophene)/phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester blends. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 026601 (2012).10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.026601 ↗
48. Ye, L. et al. Quantitative relations between interaction parameter, miscibility and function in organic solar cells. Nat. Mater. 17, 253–260 (2018).10.1038/s41563-017-0005-1 ↗
49. He, Y. et al. Evidencing excellent thermal- and photostability for single-component organic solar cells with inherently built-in microstructure. Adv. Energy Mater. 9, 1900409 (2019).10.1002/aenm.201900409 ↗
50. Sun, R. et al. Achieving over 17% efficiency of ternary all-polymer solar cells with two well-compatible polymer acceptors. Joule 5, 1548–1565 (2021).10.1016/j.joule.2021.04.007 ↗
51. Du, X. et al. Unraveling the microstructure-related device stability for polymer solar cells based on nonfullerene small-molecular acceptors. Adv. Mater. 32, 1908305 (2020).10.1002/adma.201908305 ↗
52. Cha, H. et al. An efficient, “burn in” free organic solar cell employing a nonfullerene electron acceptor. Adv. Mater. 29, 1701156 (2017).10.1002/adma.201701156 ↗
53. Riede, M., Spoltore, D. & Leo, K. Organic solar cells—the path to commercial success. Adv. Energy Mater. 11, 2002653 (2021).10.1002/aenm.202002653 ↗
54. Wang, Z. et al. The coupling and competition of crystallization and phase separation, correlating thermodynamics and kinetics in OPV morphology and performances. Nat. Commun. 12, 332 (2021).10.1038/s41467-020-20515-3 ↗
55. Turner, S. T. et al. Quantitative analysis of bulk heterojunction films using linear absorption spectroscopy and solar cell performance. Adv. Funct. Mater. 21, 4640–4652 (2011).10.1002/adfm.201101583 ↗
56. Clark, J., Silva, C., Friend, R. H. & Spano, F. C. Role of intermolecular coupling in the photophysics of disordered organic semiconductors: aggregate emission in regioregular polythiophene. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 206406 (2007).10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.206406 ↗
57. Caruso, D. & Troisi, A. Long-range exciton dissociation in organic solar cells. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 13498–13502 (2012).10.1073/pnas.1206172109 ↗
58. Spano, F. C. Modeling disorder in polymer aggregates: the optical spectroscopy of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) thin films. J. Chem. Phys. 122, 234701 (2005).10.1063/1.1914768 ↗