Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States). Dept. Physics and Astronomy
King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudia Arabia). KAUST Solar Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, Material Science and Engineering Program
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
Univ. of Potsdam, Postsdam (Germany). Inst. fur Physik und Astronomie, Physik weicher Materie
Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane (Australia). Centre for Organic Photonics & Electronics
King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudia Arabia). KAUST Solar Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division
(PSE), Chemical Sciences Program
King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudia Arabia). KAUST Solar Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division
(PSE), Chemical Sciences Program; King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudia Arabia). KAUST Solar Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, Material Science and Engineering Program
The interplay between nanomorphology and efficiency of polymer-fullerene bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells has been the subject of intense research, but the generality of these concepts for small-molecule (SM) BHJs remains unclear. Here in this paper, the relation between performance; charge generation, recombination, and extraction dynamics; and nanomorphology achievable with two SM donors benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b]dithiophene-pyrido[3,4-b]-pyrazine BDT(PPTh2)2, namely SM1 and SM2, differing by their side-chains, are examined as a function of solution additive composition. The results show that the additive 1,8-diiodooctane acts as a plasticizer in the blends, increases domain size, and promotes ordering/crystallinity. Surprisingly, the system with high domain purity (SM1) exhibits both poor exciton harvesting and severe charge trapping, alleviated only slightly with increased crystallinity. In contrast, the system consisting of mixed domains and lower crystallinity (SM2) shows both excellent exciton harvesting and low charge recombination losses. Importantly, the onset of large, pure crystallites in the latter (SM2) system reduces efficiency, pointing to possible differences in the ideal morphologies for SM-based BHJ solar cells compared with polymer-fullerene devices. Lastly, in polymer-based systems, tie chains between pure polymer crystals establish a continuous charge transport network, whereas SM-based active layers may in some cases require mixed domains that enable both aggregation and charge percolation to the electrodes.
Alqahtani, Obaid, et al. "Mixed Domains Enhance Charge Generation and Extraction in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells with Small-Molecule Donors." Advanced Energy Materials, vol. 8, no. 19, Mar. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201702941
Alqahtani, Obaid, Babics, Maxime, Gorenflot, Julien, Savikhin, Victoria, Ferron, Thomas, Balawi, Ahmed H., Paulke, Andreas, Kan, Zhipeng, Pope, Michael, Clulow, Andrew J., Wolf, Jannic, Burn, Paul L., Gentle, Ian R., Neher, Dieter, Toney, Michael F., Laquai, Ferderic, Beaujuge, Pierre M., & Collins, Brian A. (2018). Mixed Domains Enhance Charge Generation and Extraction in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells with Small-Molecule Donors. Advanced Energy Materials, 8(19). https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201702941
Alqahtani, Obaid, Babics, Maxime, Gorenflot, Julien, et al., "Mixed Domains Enhance Charge Generation and Extraction in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells with Small-Molecule Donors," Advanced Energy Materials 8, no. 19 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201702941
@article{osti_1462361,
author = {Alqahtani, Obaid and Babics, Maxime and Gorenflot, Julien and Savikhin, Victoria and Ferron, Thomas and Balawi, Ahmed H. and Paulke, Andreas and Kan, Zhipeng and Pope, Michael and Clulow, Andrew J. and others},
title = {Mixed Domains Enhance Charge Generation and Extraction in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells with Small-Molecule Donors},
annote = {The interplay between nanomorphology and efficiency of polymer-fullerene bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells has been the subject of intense research, but the generality of these concepts for small-molecule (SM) BHJs remains unclear. Here in this paper, the relation between performance; charge generation, recombination, and extraction dynamics; and nanomorphology achievable with two SM donors benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b]dithiophene-pyrido[3,4-b]-pyrazine BDT(PPTh2)2, namely SM1 and SM2, differing by their side-chains, are examined as a function of solution additive composition. The results show that the additive 1,8-diiodooctane acts as a plasticizer in the blends, increases domain size, and promotes ordering/crystallinity. Surprisingly, the system with high domain purity (SM1) exhibits both poor exciton harvesting and severe charge trapping, alleviated only slightly with increased crystallinity. In contrast, the system consisting of mixed domains and lower crystallinity (SM2) shows both excellent exciton harvesting and low charge recombination losses. Importantly, the onset of large, pure crystallites in the latter (SM2) system reduces efficiency, pointing to possible differences in the ideal morphologies for SM-based BHJ solar cells compared with polymer-fullerene devices. Lastly, in polymer-based systems, tie chains between pure polymer crystals establish a continuous charge transport network, whereas SM-based active layers may in some cases require mixed domains that enable both aggregation and charge percolation to the electrodes.},
doi = {10.1002/aenm.201702941},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1462361},
journal = {Advanced Energy Materials},
issn = {ISSN 1614-6832},
number = {19},
volume = {8},
place = {United States},
publisher = {Wiley},
year = {2018},
month = {03}}
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 632, Issue 1https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2010.12.075
