Simultaneously Improved Efficiency and Stability in All-Polymer Solar Cells by a P–i–N Architecture

Xu, Yalong; Yuan, Jianyu; Liang, Shuyan; Chen, Jing-De; Xia, Yuxin; Larson, Bryon W.; Wang, Yusheng; Su, Gregory M.; Zhang, Yannan; Cui, Chaohua; Wang, Ming; Zhao, Haibin; Ma, Wanli

doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.9b01459

Simultaneously Improved Efficiency and Stability in All-Polymer Solar Cells by a P–i–N Architecture

Journal Article · Tue Aug 20 00:00:00 UTC 2019 · ACS Energy Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.9b01459· OSTI ID:1562445

Xu, Yalong ^[1]; ^[1]; Liang, Shuyan ^[2]; Chen, Jing-De ^[1]; Xia, Yuxin ^[3]; Larson, Bryon W. ^[4]; Wang, Yusheng ^[1]; ^[5]; Zhang, Yannan ^[1]; ^[6]; ^[7]; ^[2]; ^[1]

Soochow Univ., Suzhou (China). Inst. of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Lab. for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Joint International Research Lab. of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices
Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China). Shanghai Ultra-precision Optical Manufacturing Engineering Research Center and Key Lab. of Micro and Nano Photonic Structures (Ministry of Education), Dept. of Optical Science and Engineering
Linköping Univ., Linköping (Sweden) Biomolecular and Organic Electronics (IFM)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States). Chemistry & Nanoscience Center
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source
Soochow Univ., Suzhou (China). Lab. of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Donghua Univ., Shanghai (China). Center for Advanced Low-Dimension Materials, State Key Lab. for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials

All-polymer organic solar cells offer exceptional stability. Unfortunately, the use of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure has the intrinsic challenge to control the side-chain entanglement and backbone orientation to achieve sophisticated phase separation in all-polymer blends. Here, we revealed that the P-i-N structure can outperform the BHJ ones with a nearly 50% efficiency improvement, reaching a power conversion efficiency approaching 10%. This P-i-N structure can also provide an enhanced internal electric field and remarkably stable morphology under harsh thermal stress. We have further demonstrated generality of the P-i-N structure in several other all-polymer systems. Considering the adjustable polymer molecular weight and solubility, the P-i-N device structure can be more beneficial for all-polymer systems. With the design of more crystalline polymers, the antiquated P-i-N structure can further show its strength in all-polymer systems by simplified morphology control and improved carrier extraction, becoming a more favorite device structure than the dominant BHJ structure.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1562445

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1633245

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5900-74834

Journal Information:: ACS Energy Letters, Journal Name: ACS Energy Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 4; ISSN 2380-8195

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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