Near-infrared absorbing acceptor with suppressed triplet exciton generation enabling high performance tandem organic solar cells

Jia, Zhenrong; Ma, Qing; Chen, Zeng; Meng, Lei; Jain, Nakul; Angunawela, Indunil; Qin, Shucheng; Kong, Xiaolei; Li, Xiaojun; Yang, Yang; Zhu, Haiming; Ade, Harald; Gao, Feng; Li, Yongfang

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36917-y

Near-infrared absorbing acceptor with suppressed triplet exciton generation enabling high performance tandem organic solar cells

Journal Article · Sat Mar 04 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36917-y· OSTI ID:2422705

Jia, Zhenrong ^[1]; Ma, Qing ^[1]; Chen, Zeng ^[2]; ^[1]; Jain, Nakul ^[3]; Angunawela, Indunil ^[4]; Qin, Shucheng ^[1]; Kong, Xiaolei ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[4]; ^[3]; ^[5]

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China)
Linköping University (Sweden)
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC (United States)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Soochow University, Suzhou (China)

Reducing the energy loss of sub-cells is critical for high performance tandem organic solar cells, while it is limited by the severe non-radiative voltage loss via the formation of non-emissive triplet excitons. Herein, we develop an ultra-narrow bandgap acceptor BTPSeV-4F through replacement of terminal thiophene by selenophene in the central fused ring of BTPSV-4F, for constructing efficient tandem organic solar cells. The selenophene substitution further decrease the optical bandgap of BTPSV-4F to 1.17 eV and suppress the formation of triplet exciton in the BTPSV-4F-based devices. The organic solar cells with BTPSeV-4F as acceptor demonstrate a higher power conversion efficiency of 14.2% with a record high short-circuit current density of 30.1 mA cm^–2 and low energy loss of 0.55 eV benefitted from the low non-radiative energy loss due to the suppression of triplet exciton formation. We also develop a high-performance medium bandgap acceptor O1-Br for front cells. By integrating the PM6:O1-Br based front cells with the PTB7-Th:BTPSeV-4F based rear cells, the tandem organic solar cell demonstrates a power conversion efficiency of 19%. The results indicate that the suppression of triplet excitons formation in the near-infrared-absorbing acceptor by molecular design is an effective way to improve the photovoltaic performance of the tandem organic solar cells.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 2422705

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 14; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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