Impact of Nonfullerene Molecular Architecture on Charge Generation, Transport, and Morphology in PTB7‐Th‐Based Organic Solar Cells

Yi, Xueping; Gautam, Bhoj; Constantinou, Iordania; Cheng, Yuanhang; Peng, Zhengxing; Klump, Erik; Ba, Xiaochu; Ho, Carr Hoi Yi; Dong, Chen; Marder, Seth R.; Reynolds, John R.; Tsang, Sai‐Wing; Ade, Harald; So, Franky

doi:10.1002/adfm.201802702

Impact of Nonfullerene Molecular Architecture on Charge Generation, Transport, and Morphology in PTB7‐Th‐Based Organic Solar Cells

Journal Article · Thu Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Advanced Functional Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201802702· OSTI ID:1456280

Yi, Xueping ^[1]; Gautam, Bhoj ^[2]; Constantinou, Iordania ^[1]; Cheng, Yuanhang ^[3]; Peng, Zhengxing ^[4]; Klump, Erik ^[1]; Ba, Xiaochu ^[5]; Ho, Carr Hoi Yi ^[1]; Dong, Chen ^[1]; Marder, Seth R. ^[5]; Reynolds, John R. ^[5]; Tsang, Sai‐Wing ^[3]; Ade, Harald ^[4]; ^[1]

Department of Materials Science and Engineering North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
Department of Chemistry and Physics Fayetteville State University Fayetteville NC 28301 USA
Department of Materials Science and Engineering City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR P. R. China, City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute Shenzhen P. R. China
Department of Physics Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL) North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Georgia Tech Polymer Network Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta GA 30332 USA

Abstract

Despite the rapid development of nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs), the fundamental understanding on the relationship between NFA molecular architecture, morphology, and device performance is still lacking. Herein, poly[[4,8‐bis[5‐(2‐ethylhexyl)thiophene‐2‐yl]benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b0]dithiophene‐2,6‐diyl][3‐fluoro‐2‐[(2‐ethylhexyl)carbonyl]‐thieno[3,4‐b]thiophenediyl]] (PTB7‐Th) is used as the donor polymer to compare an NFA with a 3D architecture (SF‐PDI4) to a well‐studied NFA with a linear acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) architecture (ITIC). The data suggest that the NFA ITIC with a linear molecular structure shows a better device performance due to an increase in short‐circuit current ( J _sc ) and fill factor (FF) compared to the 3D SF‐PDI4. The charge generation dynamics measured by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) reveals that the exciton dissociation process in the PTB7‐Th:ITIC films is highly efficient. In addition, the PTB7‐Th:ITIC blend shows a higher electron mobility and lower energetic disorder compared to the PTB7‐Th:SF‐PDI4 blend, leading to higher values of J _sc and FF. The compositional sensitive resonant soft X‐ray scattering (R‐SoXS) results indicate that ITIC molecules form more pure domains with reduced domain spacing, resulting in more efficient charge transport compared with the SF‐PDI4 blend. It is proposed that both the molecular structure and the corresponding morphology of ITIC play a vital role for the good solar cell device performance.

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1456280

Journal Information:: Advanced Functional Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Functional Materials Journal Issue: 32 Vol. 28; ISSN 1616-301X

Publisher:: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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