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Title: Enhancing Indacenodithiophene Acceptor Crystallinity via Substituent Manipulation Increases Organic Solar Cell Efficiency

Journal Article · · Chemistry of Materials

The post-fullerene indacenodithiophene acceptor ITIC is a highly effective n-type component of high-performance bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) for reasons that are not well-understood. Here, the impact of the ITIC alkyl substituent architecture on PSC active layer film morphology, charge transport, and photovoltaic (PV) performance is investigated with the donor polymers PBDB-T and PBDB-TF. On progressing from n-propyl to n-hexyl to n-nonyl ITIC substituents, PSC power conversion efficiency (PCE) increases from <0.1 % to 9.31% to 10.24%, respectively. BHJ blend morphology, carrier recombination dynamics, and PV performance with both donor polymers as probed by AFM, XRD, GIWAXS, and light intensity dependence correlate with marked differences in ITIC acceptor crystallinity. The DSC cold crystallization temperatures of the nhexyl and n-nonyl-functionalized acceptors are found to closely track the annealing temperatures for optimum PSC performance. These results identify a promising strategy for optimizing the performance of post-fullerene acceptor PSCs.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center (ANSER)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001059
OSTI ID:
1470383
Journal Information:
Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 24; Related Information: ANSER partners with Northwestern University (lead); Argonne National Laboratory; University of Chicago; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Yale University; ISSN 0897-4756
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 92 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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