Fluorine Substituted Conjugated Polymer of Medium Band Gap Yields 7% Efficiency in Polymer-Fullerene Solar Cells
- Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
Recent research advances on conjugated polymers for photovoltaic devices have focused on creating low band gap materials, but a suitable band gap is only one of many performance criteria required for a successful conjugated polymer. This work focuses on the design of two medium band gap (~2.0 eV) copolymers for use in photovoltaic cells which are designed to possess a high hole mobility and low highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy levels. The resulting fluorinated polymer PBnDT-FTAZ exhibits efficiencies above 7% when blended with [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester in a typical bulk heterojunction, and efficiencies above 6% are still maintained at an active layer thicknesses of 1 μm. PBnDT-FTAZ outperforms poly(3-hexylthiophene), the current medium band gap polymer of choice, and thus is a viable candidate for use in highly efficient tandem cells. PBnDT-FTAZ also highlights other performance criteria which contribute to high photovoltaic efficiency, besides a low band gap.
- Research Organization:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Solar Fuels (UNC EFRC)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001011
- OSTI ID:
- 1081264
- Journal Information:
- J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 133, Issue 12; Related Information: UNC partners with University of North Carolina (lead); Duke University; University of Florida; Georgia Institute of Technology; University; North Carolina Central University; Research Triangle Institute
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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