Highly Efficient, Stable, and Ductile Ternary Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells from a Two‐Donor Polymer Blend

Hu, Huawei; Ye, Long; Ghasemi, Masoud; Balar, Nrup; Rech, Jeromy James; Stuard, Samuel J.; You, Wei; O'Connor, Brendan T.; Ade, Harald

doi:10.1002/adma.201808279

Title: Highly Efficient, Stable, and Ductile Ternary Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells from a Two‐Donor Polymer Blend

Journal Article · Mon Mar 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Advanced Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201808279· OSTI ID:1501713

Hu, Huawei ^[1]; Ye, Long ^[1]; Ghasemi, Masoud ^[1]; Balar, Nrup ^[2]; Rech, Jeromy James ^[3]; Stuard, Samuel J. ^[1]; You, Wei ^[3]; O'Connor, Brendan T. ^[2];

^[1]

Department of Physics and ORganic and Carbon Electronics Labs (ORaCEL) North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and ORaCEL North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
Department of Chemistry University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill NC 27599 USA

Abstract Organic solar cells (OSCs) are one of the most promising cost‐effective options for utilizing solar energy, and, while the field of OSCs has progressed rapidly in device performance in the past few years, the stability of nonfullerene OSCs has received less attention. Developing devices with both high performance and long‐term stability remains challenging, particularly if the material choice is restricted by roll‐to‐roll and benign solvent processing requirements and desirable mechanical durability. Building upon the ink (toluene:FTAZ:IT‐M) that broke the 10% benchmark when blade‐coated in air, a second donor material (PBDB‐T) is introduced to stabilize and enhance performance with power conversion efficiency over 13% while keeping toluene as the solvent. More importantly, the ternary OSCs exhibit excellent thermal stability and storage stability while retaining high ductility. The excellent performance and stability are mainly attributed to the inhibition of the crystallization of nonfullerene small‐molecular acceptors (SMAs) by introducing a stiff donor that also shows low miscibility with the nonfullerene SMA and a slightly higher highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) than the host polymer. The study indicates that improved stability and performance can be achieved in a synergistic way without significant embrittlement, which will accelerate the future development and application of nonfullerene OSCs.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: DE‐AC02‐05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1501713

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Vol. 31 Journal Issue: 17; ISSN 0935-9648

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

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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Cited by: 60 works

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