Critical Role of Polymer Aggregation and Miscibility in Nonfullerene‐Based Organic Photovoltaics

Yi, Xueping; Peng, Zhengxing; Xu, Bing; Seyitliyev, Dovletgeldi; Ho, Carr Hoi Yi; Danilov, Evgeny O.; Kim, Taesoo; Reynolds, John R.; Amassian, Aram; Gundogdu, Kenan; Ade, Harald; So, Franky

doi:10.1002/aenm.201902430

Critical Role of Polymer Aggregation and Miscibility in Nonfullerene‐Based Organic Photovoltaics

Journal Article · Tue Jan 28 23:00:00 EST 2020 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201902430· OSTI ID:1595870

Yi, Xueping ^[1]; Peng, Zhengxing ^[2]; Xu, Bing ^[3]; Seyitliyev, Dovletgeldi ^[2]; Ho, Carr Hoi Yi ^[1]; Danilov, Evgeny O. ^[4]; Kim, Taesoo ^[1]; Reynolds, John R. ^[3]; Amassian, Aram ^[1]; Gundogdu, Kenan ^[2]; Ade, Harald ^[2]; ^[1]

Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL) Department of Materials Science and Engineering North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
Department of Physics Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL) North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry School of Materials Science and Engineering Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Georgia Tech Polymer Network Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta GA 30332 USA
Department of Chemistry North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA

Abstract

Understanding the correlation between polymer aggregation, miscibility, and device performance is important to establish a set of chemistry design rules for donor polymers with nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). Employing a donor polymer with strong temperature‐dependent aggregation, namely PffBT4T‐2OD [poly[(5,6‐difluoro‐2,1,3‐benzothiadiazol‐4,7‐diyl)‐ alt ‐(3,3″′‐di(2‐octyldodecyl)‐2,2′;5′,2″;5″,2″′‐quaterthiophen‐5,5‐diyl)], also known as PCE‐11 as a base polymer, five copolymer derivatives having a different thiophene linker composition are blended with the common NFA O‐IDTBR to investigate their photovoltaic performance. While the donor polymers have similar optoelectronic properties, it is found that the device power conversion efficiency changes drastically from 1.8% to 8.7% as a function of thiophene content in the donor polymer. Results of structural characterization show that polymer aggregation and miscibility with O‐IDTBR are a strong function of the chemical composition, leading to different donor–acceptor blend morphology. Polymers having a strong tendency to aggregate are found to undergo fast aggregation prior to liquid–liquid phase separation and have a higher miscibility with NFA. These properties result in smaller mixed donor–acceptor domains, stronger PL quenching, and more efficient exciton dissociation in the resulting cells. This work indicates the importance of both polymer aggregation and donor–acceptor interaction on the formation of bulk heterojunctions in polymer:NFA blends.

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1595870

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 10; ISSN 1614-6832

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

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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