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Sequentially regular polymer acceptors featuring flexible spacers for high-performance and mechanically robust all-polymer solar cells

Journal Article · · Energy & Environmental Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d2ee02523j· OSTI ID:1994314
Developing high-performance and mechanically robust polymer solar cells (PSCs) is crucial for realizing wearable power sources. While efficient all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) can be fabricated from polymerized small-molecule acceptors (PSMAs) with high optical absorption and electron mobilities, they still show limited mechanical robustness. Here, we achieve highly efficient and mechanically robust all-PSCs by designing a PSMA (PYFS-Reg) containing sequence-regular flexible spacers (FSs). The regular incorporation of the FS units into PSMAs is essential in simultaneously improving the electrical and mechanical properties of blend films. As a result, all-PSCs featuring PYFS-Reg achieve a high power conversion efficiency (PCE = 16.1%) and stretchability (crack onset strain (COS) = 22.4%), outperforming PSMAs without FSs (i.e., PYBDT, PCE = 12.6% and COS = 11.7%) or with randomly distributed FSs (i.e., PYFS-Ran, PCE = 12.2% and COS = 18.1%). Importantly, these all-PSCs are fabricated by an environmentally benign, non-halogenated solvent process. To further demonstrate their feasible applications in wearable devices, we construct intrinsically stretchable (IS) all-PSCs by using PYFS-Reg-based active layers, which exhibit a high PCE (10.6%) and excellent device stretchability (strain at PCE80% = 36.7%).
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Research Foundation of Korea; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1994314
Journal Information:
Energy & Environmental Science, Journal Name: Energy & Environmental Science Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 15; ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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