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Title: Side Chain and Solvent Direction of Film Morphology in Small-Molecule Organic Solar Materials

Journal Article · · Chemistry of Materials

Film morphology control is essential to materials development for efficient organic solar cells (OSCs). Unlocking methods to optimize the film morphology for materials without changing the fundamental electronic characteristics can enable previously unacceptable materials to achieve high performance. In this work, a series of acceptor-donor-acceptor (ADA) small molecule p-type OSC semiconductors having benzo[1,2-b:6,5-b0]dithiophene (bBDT) donor units and thiophene capped diketopyrrolopyrrole (TDPP) acceptor units are examined where the sole molecular design variation is in the electronically inactive side chains. Four bBDT(TDPP)2 compounds with all possible combinations of either 2-ethelhexyl (EH), or 3,7-dimtheyloctyl (DMO) side chains on the bBDT core and TDPP units are discussed. When processed from a chloroform (CF)-only solution, blend films of the molecules with the PC71BM electron acceptor exhibit similar thin film properties and photovoltaic performance, regardless of the side chain composition. However, when the additive 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) is included in the processing solution, the morphological properties and OSC performance diverge dramatically, with the side chain variations now dictating the film morphology, resulting in a >400% spread in power conversion efficiency (PCE). Donor molecules with a mixed side chain motif having the larger DMO side chain on the bBDT core unit deliver the best performance owing to greater donor:acceptor phase intermixing while maintaining contiguous and efficient charge transport pathways. Using in situ GIWAXS during spin-coating, it is shown that DIO extends crystallization times, thereby promoting more thermodynamically driven structures where the side chain compositions have greater impact. Lastly, general guidelines are presented for achieving morphological optimization via combined side chain engineering and processing additives.

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)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1574135
Journal Information:
Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 31, Issue 20; ISSN 0897-4756
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 7 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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