Triptycene as a Supramolecular Additive in PTB7:PCBM Blends and Its Influence on Photovoltaic Properties

Krishnan Jagadamma, Lethy; McCarron, Liam J.; Wiles, Alan A.; Savikhin, Victoria; Sajjad, Muhammad T.; Yazdani, Mahdieh; Rotello, Vincent M.; Toney, Michael F.; Cooke, Graeme; Samuel, Ifor D.  W.

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b03114

Title: Triptycene as a Supramolecular Additive in PTB7:PCBM Blends and Its Influence on Photovoltaic Properties

Journal Article · Fri Jun 22 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.8b03114· OSTI ID:1469621

Krishnan Jagadamma, Lethy ^[1]; McCarron, Liam J. ^[2];

^[2]; Savikhin, Victoria ^[3]; Sajjad, Muhammad T. ^[1]; Yazdani, Mahdieh ^[4];

^[4];

^[5]; Cooke, Graeme ^[2];

^[1]

Univ. of St Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom). Organic Semiconductor Centre. SUPA. School of Physics and Astronomy
Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland (United Kingdom). Glasgow Centre for Physical Organic Chemistry (GCPOC). WestCHEM. School of Chemistry
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource; Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Electrical Engineering Dept.
Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource

Additives play an important role in modifying the morphology and phase separation of donor and acceptor molecules in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. In this paper, we report triptycene (TPC) as a small-molecule additive for supramolecular control of phase separation and concomitant improvement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PTB7 donor and fullerene acceptor-based BHJ polymer solar cells. An overall 60% improvement in PCE is observed for both PTB7:PC₆₁BM and PTB7:PC₇₁BM blends. The improved photovoltaic (PV) performance can be attributed to three factors: (a) TPC-induced supramolecular interactions with donor:acceptor components in the blends to realize a nanoscale phase-separated morphology; (b) an increase in the charge transfer state energy that lowers the driving force for electron transfer from donor to acceptor molecules; and (c) an increase in the charge carrier mobility. An improvement in efficiency using TPC as a supramolecular additive has also been demonstrated for other BHJ blends such as PBDB-T:PC₇₁BM and P3HT:PCBM, implying the wide applicability of this new additive molecule. A comparison of the photostability of TPC as an additive for PTB7:PCBM solar cells to that of the widely used 1,8-diiodooctane additive shows ~30% higher retention of PV performance for the TPC-added solar cells after 34 h of AM 1.5G illumination. Finally, the results obtained suggest that the approach of using additives that can promote supramolecular interactions to modify the length scale of phase separation between donor and acceptor is very promising and can lead to the development of highly efficient and stable organic photovoltaics.

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Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of St Andrews, Scotland (United Kingdom); Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland (United Kingdom)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); European Research Council (ERC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515; EP/L012294/1; EP/L012170/1; 321305

OSTI ID:: 1469621

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 10, Issue 29; ISSN 1944-8244

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 9 works

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
bulk heterojunction
conjugated polymer
electroluminescence
organic solar cells
phase separation

Title: Triptycene as a Supramolecular Additive in PTB7:PCBM Blends and Its Influence on Photovoltaic Properties

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