Efficient Thick-Film Polymer Solar Cells with Enhanced Fill Factors via Increased Fullerene Loading

Duan, Chunhui; Peng, Zhengxing; Colberts, Fallon J.  M.; Pang, Shuting; Ye, Long; Awartani, Omar M.; Hendriks, Koen H.; Ade, Harald; Wienk, Martijn M.; Janssen, René A.  J.

doi:10.1021/acsami.9b00337

Efficient Thick-Film Polymer Solar Cells with Enhanced Fill Factors via Increased Fullerene Loading

Journal Article · Mon Feb 25 00:00:00 EST 2019 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b00337· OSTI ID:1508784

^[1]; Peng, Zhengxing ^[2]; Colberts, Fallon J. M. ^[3]; Pang, Shuting ^[4]; ^[2]; Awartani, Omar M. ^[2]; Hendriks, Koen H. ^[5]; ^[2]; Wienk, Martijn M. ^[3]; ^[5]

South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou (China). Inst. of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices. State Key Lab. of Luminescent Materials and Devices; Eindhoven Univ. of Technology (Netherlands). Molecular Materials and Nanosystems. Inst. for Complex Molecular Systems; North Carolina State University
North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States). Dept. of Physics. Organic and Carbon Electronics Labs (ORaCEL)
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology (Netherlands). Molecular Materials and Nanosystems. Inst. for Complex Molecular Systems
South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou (China). Inst. of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices. State Key Lab. of Luminescent Materials and Devices
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology (Netherlands). Molecular Materials and Nanosystems. Inst. for Complex Molecular Systems; Dutch Inst. for Fundamental Energy Research, Eindhoven (Netherlands)

Developing effective methods to make efficient bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells at roll-to-roll relevant active layer thickness is of significant importance. We investigate the effect of fullerene content in polymer:fullerene blends on the fill factor (FF) and on the performance of thick-film solar cells for four different donor polymers PTB7-Th, PDPP-TPT, BDT-FBT-2T, and poly[5,5'-bis(2-butyloctyl)-(2,2'-bithiophene)-4,4'-dicarboxylate-alt-5,5'-2,2'-bithiophene] (PDCBT). At a few hundreds of nanometers thickness, increased FFs are observed in all cases and improved overall device performances are obtained except for PDCBT upon increasing fullerene content in blend films. This fullerene content effect was studied in more detail by electrical and morphological characterization. The results suggest enhanced electron mobility and suppressed bimolecular recombination upon increasing fullerene content in thick polymer:fullerene blend films, which are the result of larger fullerene aggregates and improved interconnectivity of the fullerene phases that provide continuous percolating pathways for electron transport in thick films. These findings are important because an effective and straightforward method that enables fabricating efficient thick-film polymer solar cells is desirable for large-scale manufacturing via roll-to-roll processing and for multijunction devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Eindhoven Univ. of Technology (Netherlands); North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou (China)

Sponsoring Organization:: European Research Council (ERC); Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands); Ministry of Science and Technology (China); Office of Naval Research (ONR) (United States); Recruitment Program of Global Youth Experts of China; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1508784

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 11; ISSN 1944-8244

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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