Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

In Situ Structure Characterization in Slot-Die-Printed All-Polymer Solar Cells with Efficiency Over 9%

Journal Article · · Solar RRL
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [3];  [5];  [5];  [2]
  1. South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou (China); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  5. South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou (China)
  6. Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China)
  7. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
Herein, high-performance printed all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) based on a bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) blend film are demonstrated using PTzBI as the donor and N2200 as the acceptor. A slot-die process is used to prepare the BHJ blend, which is a cost-effective, high-throughput approach to achieve large-area photovoltaic devices. The real-time crystallization of polymers in the film drying process is investigated by in situ grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering characterization. Printing is found to significantly improve the crystallinity of the polymer blend in comparison with spin coating. Moreover, printing with 1,8-diiodooctane as the solvent additive enhances the polymer aggregation and crystallization during solvent evaporation, eventually leading to multi-length-scale phase separation, with PTzBI-rich domains in-between the N2200 crystalline fibers. This unique morphology achieved by printing fabrication results in an impressively high power conversion efficiency of 9.10%, which is the highest efficiency reported for printed all-PSCs. Finally, these findings provide important guidelines for controlling film drying dynamics for processing all-PSCs.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1599802
Journal Information:
Solar RRL, Journal Name: Solar RRL Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 3; ISSN 2367-198X
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (67)

Improved All-Polymer Solar Cell Performance by Using Matched Polymer Acceptor journal June 2016
Precise Manipulation of Multilength Scale Morphology and Its Influence on Eco-Friendly Printed All-Polymer Solar Cells journal July 2017
Tuning the Molecular Weight of the Electron Accepting Polymer in All-Polymer Solar Cells: Impact on Morphology and Charge Generation journal March 2018
Shift of the Branching Point of the Side-Chain in Naphthalenediimide (NDI)-Based Polymer for Enhanced Electron Mobility and All-Polymer Solar Cell Performance journal August 2018
Efficient Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Low Bandgap Semi-crystalline DPP Polymer-PCBM Blends journal June 2012
High Performance All-Polymer Solar Cell via Polymer Side-Chain Engineering journal March 2014
All-Polymer Bulk Heterojuction Solar Cells with 4.8% Efficiency Achieved by Solution Processing from a Co-Solvent journal July 2014
Fast Printing and In Situ Morphology Observation of Organic Photovoltaics Using Slot-Die Coating journal December 2014
Fluoro-Substituted n-Type Conjugated Polymers for Additive-Free All-Polymer Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells with High Power Conversion Efficiency of 6.71% journal April 2015
7.7% Efficient All-Polymer Solar Cells journal July 2015
All-Polymer Solar Cells Based on Absorption-Complementary Polymer Donor and Acceptor with High Power Conversion Efficiency of 8.27% journal December 2015
Improved Performance of All-Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Naphthodiperylenetetraimide-Based Polymer Acceptor journal May 2017
All-Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Conjugated Polymer Containing Siloxane-Functionalized Side Chains with Efficiency over 10% journal November 2017
Environmentally Friendly Solvent-Processed Organic Solar Cells that are Highly Efficient and Adaptable for the Blade-Coating Method journal December 2017
Surpassing 10% Efficiency Benchmark for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells by Scalable Coating in Air from Single Nonhalogenated Solvent journal January 2018
Solvent Additives: Key Morphology-Directing Agents for Solution-Processed Organic Solar Cells journal June 2018
A Highly Efficient Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cell with a Fill Factor over 0.80 Enabled by a Fine-Tuned Hole-Transporting Layer journal July 2018
Combinatorial Screening of Polymer:Fullerene Blends for Organic Solar Cells by Inkjet Printing journal December 2010
Polymer Blend Solar Cells Based on a High-Mobility Naphthalenediimide-Based Polymer Acceptor: Device Physics, Photophysics and Morphology journal February 2011
Influence of Aggregation on the Performance of All-Polymer Solar Cells Containing Low-Bandgap Naphthalenediimide Copolymers journal January 2012
Effect of Processing Additives on the Solidification of Blade-Coated Polymer/Fullerene Blend Films via In-Situ Structure Measurements journal April 2013
Morphology-Performance Relationships in High-Efficiency All-Polymer Solar Cells journal October 2013
Comparison of the Morphology Development of Polymer-Fullerene and Polymer-Polymer Solar Cells during Solution-Shearing Blade Coating journal August 2016
Roll-to-Roll Printed Large-Area All-Polymer Solar Cells with 5% Efficiency Based on a Low Crystallinity Conjugated Polymer Blend journal March 2017
Thermally Stable All-Polymer Solar Cells with High Tolerance on Blend Ratios journal March 2018
Constructing a Strongly Absorbing Low-Bandgap Polymer Acceptor for High-Performance All-Polymer Solar Cells journal September 2017
Effects of Bithiophene Imide Fusion on the Device Performance of Organic Thin-Film Transistors and All-Polymer Solar Cells journal November 2017
Constructing a Strongly Absorbing Low-Bandgap Polymer Acceptor for High-Performance All-Polymer Solar Cells journal September 2017
Effects of Bithiophene Imide Fusion on the Device Performance of Organic Thin-Film Transistors and All-Polymer Solar Cells journal November 2017
Highly Flexible and Efficient All-Polymer Solar Cells with High-Viscosity Processing Polymer Additive toward Potential of Stretchable Devices journal September 2018
Efficient Large Area Organic Solar Cells Processed by Blade-Coating With Single-Component Green Solvent journal December 2017
High-Performance Green Solvent Processed Ternary Blended All-Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Complementary Absorption and Improved Morphology journal August 2018
8.0% Efficient all-polymer solar cells based on novel starburst polymer acceptors journal March 2018
Additives for morphology control in high-efficiency organic solar cells journal September 2013
Energy-effectively printed all-polymer solar cells exceeding 8.61% efficiency journal April 2018
Designing ternary blend all-polymer solar cells with an efficiency of over 10% and a fill factor of 78% journal September 2018
Characterization of the morphology of solution-processed bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics journal December 2013
Fabrication and processing of polymer solar cells: A review of printing and coating techniques journal April 2009
High Performance Organic Solar Cells Processed by Blade Coating in Air from a Benign Food Additive Solution journal October 2016
Morphological Control of Donor/Acceptor Interfaces in All-Polymer Solar Cells Using a Pentafluorobenzene-Based Additive journal August 2017
Efficient All-Polymer Solar Cells Based on Conjugated Polymer Containing an Alkoxylated Imide-Functionalized Benzotriazole Unit journal October 2017
Polymer/Polymer Blend Solar Cells Improved by Using High-Molecular-Weight Fluorene-Based Copolymer as Electron Acceptor journal June 2012
Influence of Alkyl Side-Chain Length on the Performance of Poly(3-alkylthiophene)/Polyfluorene All-Polymer Solar Cells journal June 2010
Relating Chemical Structure to Device Performance via Morphology Control in Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Low Band Gap Polymers journal December 2013
High Performance All-Polymer Solar Cells by Synergistic Effects of Fine-Tuned Crystallinity and Solvent Annealing journal August 2016
Transition from Solution to the Solid State in Polymer Solar Cells Cast from Mixed Solvents journal November 2008
Remarkable Order of a High-Performance Polymer journal May 2013
Formation of Nanopatterned Polymer Blends in Photovoltaic Devices journal April 2010
Correlating the Efficiency and Nanomorphology of Polymer Blend Solar Cells Utilizing Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering journal December 2011
Flow-enhanced solution printing of all-polymer solar cells journal August 2015
Flexible, highly efficient all-polymer solar cells journal October 2015
Polarized X-ray scattering reveals non-crystalline orientational ordering in organic films journal April 2012
Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors journal January 2018
The meniscus-guided deposition of semiconducting polymers journal February 2018
High fabrication yield organic tandem photovoltaics combining vacuum- and solution-processed subcells with 15% efficiency journal April 2018
High-efficiency small-molecule ternary solar cells with a hierarchical morphology enabled by synergizing fullerene and non-fullerene acceptors journal September 2018
Next-generation organic photovoltaics based on non-fullerene acceptors journal February 2018
Scalable, ambient atmosphere roll-to-roll manufacture of encapsulated large area, flexible organic tandem solar cell modules journal January 2014
Performance, morphology and photophysics of high open-circuit voltage, low band gap all-polymer solar cells journal January 2015
Optimisation of processing solvent and molecular weight for the production of green-solvent-processed all-polymer solar cells with a power conversion efficiency over 9% journal January 2017
Novel perylene diimide-based polymers with electron-deficient segments as the comonomer for efficient all-polymer solar cells journal January 2018
A generic green solvent concept boosting the power conversion efficiency of all-polymer solar cells to 11% journal January 2019
Recombination in polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells journal December 2010
Organic and solution-processed tandem solar cells with 17.3% efficiency journal August 2018
Surpassing 10% Efficiency Benchmark for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells by Scalable Coating in Air from Single Nonhalogenated Solvent text January 2018
Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors. text January 2018
Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors. text January 2018

Cited By (1)

Recent Progress in All‐Polymer Solar Cells Based on Wide‐Bandgap p‐Type Polymers journal August 2019

Similar Records

Aggregation‐Induced Multilength Scaled Morphology Enabling 11.76% Efficiency in All‐Polymer Solar Cells Using Printing Fabrication
Journal Article · Tue Aug 27 20:00:00 EDT 2019 · Advanced Materials · OSTI ID:1559051

Low-Vapor-Pressure Solvent Additives Function as Polymer Swelling Agents in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Photovoltaics
Journal Article · Sun Jul 01 20:00:00 EDT 2018 · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C · OSTI ID:1469065