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Flow-enhanced solution printing of all-polymer solar cells

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8955· OSTI ID:1238256
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [5];  [1];  [4];  [6];  [7];  [1]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  2. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
  5. Sungkyunkwan Univ. (SKKU), Suwon (Republic of Korea); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  6. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  7. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Dresden Univ. of Technology, Dresden (Germany)
Morphology control of solution coated solar cell materials presents a key challenge limiting their device performance and commercial viability. Here we present a new concept for controlling phase separation during solution printing using an all-polymer bulk heterojunction solar cell as a model system. The key aspect of our method lies in the design of fluid flow using a microstructured printing blade, on the basis of the hypothesis of flow-induced polymer crystallization. Our flow design resulted in a similar to 90% increase in the donor thin film crystallinity and reduced microphase separated donor and acceptor domain sizes. The improved morphology enhanced all metrics of solar cell device performance across various printing conditions, specifically leading to higher short-circuit current, fill factor, open circuit voltage and significantly reduced device-to-device variation. However, we expect our design concept to have broad applications beyond all-polymer solar cells because of its simplicity and versatility.
Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1238256
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1260952
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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