Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Mediated Assembly of Donor Polymers Enhances Efficiency and Stability of Blade-Coated Organic Solar Cells

Khasbaatar, Azzaya; Damron, Alec M.; Fernando, Pravini S.; Williams, Jasmine S.; Zhu, Chenhui; Gann, Eliot H.; Lee, Jong‐Hoon; Birge, Adrian; Kim, Bora; Sabury, Sina; Lee, Minjoo L.; Reynolds, John R.; Diao, Ying

doi:10.1002/adma.202414632

Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Mediated Assembly of Donor Polymers Enhances Efficiency and Stability of Blade-Coated Organic Solar Cells

Journal Article · Wed Feb 05 00:00:00 EST 2025 · Advanced Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202414632· OSTI ID:2530560

^[1]; Damron, Alec M. ^[1]; Fernando, Pravini S. ^[1]; Williams, Jasmine S. ^[1]; Zhu, Chenhui ^[2]; Gann, Eliot H. ^[3]; Lee, Jong‐Hoon ^[4]; Birge, Adrian ^[1]; Kim, Bora ^[1]; Sabury, Sina ^[5]; Lee, Minjoo L. ^[1]; ^[5]; ^[1]

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
Kyonggi University, Suwon (Korea, Republic of)
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

Conjugated polymers can undergo complex, concentration-dependent self-assembly during solution processing, yet little is known about its impact on film morphology and device performance of organic solar cells. Herein, lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) mediated assembly across multiple conjugated polymers is reported, which generally gives rise to improved device performance of blade-coated non-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells. Using D18 as a model system, the formation mechanism of LLC is unveiled employing solution X-ray scattering and microscopic imaging tools: D18 first aggregates into semicrystalline nanofibers, then assemble into achiral nematic LLC which goes through symmetry breaking to yield a chiral twist-bent LLC. The assembly pathway is driven by increasing solution concentration – a common driving force during evaporative assembly relevant to scalable manufacturing. This assembly pathway can be largely modulated by coating regimes to give 1) lyotropic liquid crystalline assembly in the evaporation regime and 2) random fiber aggregation pathway in the Landau–Levich regime. The chiral liquid crystalline assembly pathway resulted in films with crystallinity 2.63 times that of films from the random fiber aggregation pathway, significantly enhancing the T80 lifetime by 50-fold. The generality of LLC-mediated assembly and enhanced device performance is further validated using polythiophene and quinoxaline-based donor polymers.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 2530560

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 37; ISSN 0935-9648

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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