Photoactive Blend Morphology Engineering through Systematically Tuning Aggregation in All-Polymer Solar Cells

Wang, Gang; Eastham, Nicholas D.; Aldrich, Thomas J.; Ma, Boran; Manley, Eric F.; Chen, Zhihua; Chen, Lin X.; de la Cruz, Monica Olvera; Chang, Robert P.  H.; Melkonyan, Ferdinand S.; Facchetti, Antonio; Marks, Tobin J.

doi:10.1002/aenm.201702173

Photoactive Blend Morphology Engineering through Systematically Tuning Aggregation in All-Polymer Solar Cells

Journal Article · 15 January 2018 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201702173· OSTI ID:1566325

Wang, Gang ^[1]; Eastham, Nicholas D. ^[1]; Aldrich, Thomas J. ^[1]; Ma, Boran ^[2]; Manley, Eric F. ^[3]; Chen, Zhihua ^[4]; Chen, Lin X. ^[3]; de la Cruz, Monica Olvera ^[2]; Chang, Robert P. H. ^[2]; Melkonyan, Ferdinand S. ^[1]; Facchetti, Antonio ^[5]; ^[6]

Department of Chemistry, the Materials Research Center, and the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston IL 60208 USA
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Materials Research Center, and the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston IL 60208 USA
Department of Chemistry, the Materials Research Center, and the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston IL 60208 USA; Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue Lemont IL 60439 USA
Flexterra Corporation, 8025 Lamon Avenue Skokie IL 60077 USA
Department of Chemistry, the Materials Research Center, and the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston IL 60208 USA; Flexterra Corporation, 8025 Lamon Avenue Skokie IL 60077 USA
Department of Chemistry, the Materials Research Center, and the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston IL 60208 USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the Materials Research Center, and the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston IL 60208 USA

Polymer aggregation plays a critical role in the miscibility of materials and the performance of all-polymer solar cells (APSCs). However, many aspects of how polymer texturing and aggregation affect photoactive blend film microstructure and photovoltaic performance are poorly understood. Here the effects of aggregation in donor–acceptor blends are studied, in which the number-average molecular weights (Mns) of both an amorphous donor polymer, poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl)] (PBDTT-FTTE) and a semicrystalline acceptor polymer, poly{[N,N'-bis(2-octyldodecyl)naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-diyl]-alt-5,5'-(2,2'-bithiophene)} (P(NDI2OD-T2)) are systematically varied. The photovoltaic performance is correlated with active layer microstructural and optoelectronic data acquired by in-depth transmission electron microscopy, grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, thermal analysis, and optical spectroscopic measurements. Coarse-grained modeling provides insight into the effects of polymer aggregation on the blend morphology. Notably, the computed average distance between the donor and the acceptor polymers correlates well with solar cell photovoltaic metrics such as short-circuit current density (Jsc) and represents a useful index for understanding/predicting active layer blend material intermixing trends. Importantly, these results demonstrate that for polymers with different texturing tendencies (amorphous/semicrystalline), the key for optimal APSC performance, photovoltaic blend morphology can be controlled via both donor and acceptor polymer aggregation.

Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Light Energy Activated Redox Processes (LEAP); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

DOE Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357; SC0001059

OSTI ID:: 1566325

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 12; ISSN 1614-6832

Publisher:: Wiley

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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