journal article·2021-11Open access

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

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

Advanced Energy Materials· Volume 11· Issue 41

Abstract

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.
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Research context

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

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

Affiliations

Department of Chemistry City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Hong Kong 999077 China

Department of Energy Engineering School of Energy and Chemical Engineering Perovtronics Research Center Low Dimensional Carbon Materials Center Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) Ulju‐gun Ulsan 44919 South Korea

Department of Materials Science and Engineering City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Hong Kong 999077 China

Department of Mechanical Engineering City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Hong Kong 999077 China

Institute of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i‐MEET) Friedrich‐Alexander‐Universität Erlangen‐Nürnberg 91058 Erlangen Germany

Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510640 P. R. China

Hong Kong Institute for Clean Energy City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Hong Kong 999077 China

Department of Materials Science & Engineering University of Washington Seattle WA 98195 USA

Funding

City University of Hong Kong · Innovation and Technology Fund · Office of Naval Research · Electrochemical Society · Glaucoma Research Foundation · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province

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