Precise Manipulation of Multilength Scale Morphology and Its Influence on Eco‐Friendly Printed All‐Polymer Solar Cells
Abstract
Significant efforts have lead to demonstrations of nonfullerene solar cells (NFSCs) with record power conversion efficiency up to ≈13% for polymer:small molecule blends and ≈9% for all‐polymer blends. However, the control of morphology in NFSCs based on polymer blends is very challenging and a key obstacle to pushing this technology to eventual commercialization. The relations between phases at various length scales and photovoltaic parameters of all‐polymer bulk‐heterojunctions remain poorly understood and seldom explored. Here, precise control over a multilength scale morphology and photovoltaic performance are demonstrated by simply altering the concentration of a green solvent additive used in blade‐coated films. Resonant soft X‐ray scattering is used to elucidate the multiphasic morphology of these printed all‐polymeric films and complements with the use of grazing incidence wide‐angle X‐ray scattering and in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry characterizations to correlate the morphology parameters at different length scales to the device performance metrics. Benefiting from the highest relative volume fraction of small domains, additive‐free solar cells show the best device performance, strengthening the advantage of single benign solvent approach. This study also highlights the importance of high volume fraction of smallest domains in printed NFSCs and organic solar cells in general.
- Authors:
-
[1];
- Department of Physics, Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL) North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 P. R. China
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and ORaCEL North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1378306
- Grant/Contract Number:
- DE‐AC02‐05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Publisher's Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Advanced Functional Materials Journal Volume: 27 Journal Issue: 33; Journal ID: ISSN 1616-301X
- Publisher:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Country of Publication:
- Germany
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Ye, Long, Xiong, Yuan, Li, Sunsun, Ghasemi, Masoud, Balar, Nrup, Turner, Johnathan, Gadisa, Abay, Hou, Jianhui, O'Connor, Brendan T., and Ade, Harald. Precise Manipulation of Multilength Scale Morphology and Its Influence on Eco‐Friendly Printed All‐Polymer Solar Cells. Germany: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/adfm.201702016.
Ye, Long, Xiong, Yuan, Li, Sunsun, Ghasemi, Masoud, Balar, Nrup, Turner, Johnathan, Gadisa, Abay, Hou, Jianhui, O'Connor, Brendan T., & Ade, Harald. Precise Manipulation of Multilength Scale Morphology and Its Influence on Eco‐Friendly Printed All‐Polymer Solar Cells. Germany. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201702016
Ye, Long, Xiong, Yuan, Li, Sunsun, Ghasemi, Masoud, Balar, Nrup, Turner, Johnathan, Gadisa, Abay, Hou, Jianhui, O'Connor, Brendan T., and Ade, Harald. Mon .
"Precise Manipulation of Multilength Scale Morphology and Its Influence on Eco‐Friendly Printed All‐Polymer Solar Cells". Germany. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201702016.
@article{osti_1378306,
title = {Precise Manipulation of Multilength Scale Morphology and Its Influence on Eco‐Friendly Printed All‐Polymer Solar Cells},
author = {Ye, Long and Xiong, Yuan and Li, Sunsun and Ghasemi, Masoud and Balar, Nrup and Turner, Johnathan and Gadisa, Abay and Hou, Jianhui and O'Connor, Brendan T. and Ade, Harald},
abstractNote = {Significant efforts have lead to demonstrations of nonfullerene solar cells (NFSCs) with record power conversion efficiency up to ≈13% for polymer:small molecule blends and ≈9% for all‐polymer blends. However, the control of morphology in NFSCs based on polymer blends is very challenging and a key obstacle to pushing this technology to eventual commercialization. The relations between phases at various length scales and photovoltaic parameters of all‐polymer bulk‐heterojunctions remain poorly understood and seldom explored. Here, precise control over a multilength scale morphology and photovoltaic performance are demonstrated by simply altering the concentration of a green solvent additive used in blade‐coated films. Resonant soft X‐ray scattering is used to elucidate the multiphasic morphology of these printed all‐polymeric films and complements with the use of grazing incidence wide‐angle X‐ray scattering and in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry characterizations to correlate the morphology parameters at different length scales to the device performance metrics. Benefiting from the highest relative volume fraction of small domains, additive‐free solar cells show the best device performance, strengthening the advantage of single benign solvent approach. This study also highlights the importance of high volume fraction of smallest domains in printed NFSCs and organic solar cells in general.},
doi = {10.1002/adfm.201702016},
journal = {Advanced Functional Materials},
number = 33,
volume = 27,
place = {Germany},
year = {Mon Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Mon Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201702016
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201702016
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Cited by: 93 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Web of Science
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Charge Creation and Recombination in Multi-Length Scale Polymer:Fullerene BHJ Solar Cell Morphologies
journal, June 2016
- Mukherjee, Subhrangsu; Jiao, Xuechen; Ade, Harald
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 18
Highly Efficient 2D-Conjugated Benzodithiophene-Based Photovoltaic Polymer with Linear Alkylthio Side Chain
journal, June 2014
- Ye, Long; Zhang, Shaoqing; Zhao, Wenchao
- Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 12
Evolution of Laterally Phase-Separated Polyfluorene Blend Morphology Studied by X-ray Spectromicroscopy
journal, May 2009
- McNeill, Christopher R.; Watts, Benjamin; Thomsen, Lars
- Macromolecules, Vol. 42, Issue 9
High-Performance Electron Acceptor with Thienyl Side Chains for Organic Photovoltaics
journal, March 2016
- Lin, Yuze; Zhao, Fuwen; He, Qiao
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 138, Issue 14
Single-Junction Binary-Blend Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with 12.1% Efficiency
journal, March 2017
- Zhao, Fuwen; Dai, Shuixing; Wu, Yang
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 18
Interferometer-controlled scanning transmission X-ray microscopes at the Advanced Light Source
journal, February 2003
- Kilcoyne, A. L. D.; Tyliszczak, T.; Steele, W. F.
- Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, Vol. 10, Issue 2
Single-junction polymer solar cells with high efficiency and photovoltage
journal, February 2015
- He, Zhicai; Xiao, Biao; Liu, Feng
- Nature Photonics, Vol. 9, Issue 3
Improved Performance of All-Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Naphthodiperylenetetraimide-Based Polymer Acceptor
journal, May 2017
- Guo, Yikun; Li, Yunke; Awartani, Omar
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 26
Morphological characterization of fullerene and fullerene-free organic photovoltaics by combined real and reciprocal space techniques
journal, May 2017
- Mukherjee, Subhrangsu; Herzing, Andrew A.; Zhao, Donglin
- Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 32, Issue 10
Soft x-ray scattering facility at the Advanced Light Source with real-time data processing and analysis
journal, April 2012
- Gann, E.; Young, A. T.; Collins, B. A.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, Issue 4
A SAXS/WAXS/GISAXS Beamline with Multilayer Monochromator
journal, October 2010
- Hexemer, Alexander; Bras, Wim; Glossinger, James
- Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 247
Nanomorphology of Bulk Heterojunction Photovoltaic Thin Films Probed with Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering
journal, August 2010
- Swaraj, Sufal; Wang, Cheng; Yan, Hongping
- Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 8
Morphology changes upon scaling a high-efficiency, solution-processed solar cell
journal, January 2016
- Ro, Hyun Wook; Downing, Jonathan M.; Engmann, Sebastian
- Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Issue 9
Charge Generation Pathways in Organic Solar Cells: Assessing the Contribution from the Electron Acceptor
journal, June 2016
- Stoltzfus, Dani M.; Donaghey, Jenny E.; Armin, Ardalan
- Chemical Reviews, Vol. 116, Issue 21
From Fullerene–Polymer to All-Polymer Solar Cells: The Importance of Molecular Packing, Orientation, and Morphology Control
journal, October 2016
- Kang, Hyunbum; Lee, Wonho; Oh, Jiho
- Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 49, Issue 11
Parallelized Nanopillar Perovskites for Semitransparent Solar Cells Using an Anodized Aluminum Oxide Scaffold
journal, July 2016
- Kwon, Hyeok-Chan; Kim, Areum; Lee, Hongseuk
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 20
Morphology of all-polymer solar cells
journal, January 2012
- McNeill, Christopher R.
- Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 5, Issue 2
Roll-to-Roll Printed Large-Area All-Polymer Solar Cells with 5% Efficiency Based on a Low Crystallinity Conjugated Polymer Blend
journal, March 2017
- Gu, Xiaodan; Zhou, Yan; Gu, Kevin
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 14
Quantitative compositional analysis of organic thin films using transmission NEXAFS spectroscopy in an X-ray microscope
journal, August 2012
- Collins, Brian A.; Ade, Harald
- Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena, Vol. 185, Issue 5-7
Diluting concentrated solution: a general, simple and effective approach to enhance efficiency of polymer solar cells
journal, January 2015
- Cheng, Pei; Yan, Cenqi; Li, Yongfang
- Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 8, Issue 8
In Situ Morphology Studies of the Mechanism for Solution Additive Effects on the Formation of Bulk Heterojunction Films
journal, September 2014
- Richter, Lee J.; DeLongchamp, Dean M.; Bokel, Felicia A.
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 3
Green-Solvent-Processed All-Polymer Solar Cells Containing a Perylene Diimide-Based Acceptor with an Efficiency over 6.5%
journal, December 2015
- Li, Sunsun; Zhang, Hao; Zhao, Wenchao
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 5
High Performance All-Polymer Solar Cell via Polymer Side-Chain Engineering
journal, March 2014
- Zhou, Yan; Kurosawa, Tadanori; Ma, Wei
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 22
A real-time study of the benefits of co-solvents in polymer solar cell processing
journal, February 2015
- van Franeker, Jacobus J.; Turbiez, Mathieu; Li, Weiwei
- Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Predicting Morphologies of Solution Processed Polymer:Fullerene Blends
journal, July 2013
- Kouijzer, Sandra; Michels, Jasper J.; van den Berg, Mauricio
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 135, Issue 32
Green-solvent-processable organic solar cells
journal, November 2016
- Zhang, Shaoqing; Ye, Long; Zhang, Hao
- Materials Today, Vol. 19, Issue 9
All-Polymer Solar Cells Employing Non-Halogenated Solvent and Additive
journal, July 2016
- Zhou, Yan; Gu, Kevin L.; Gu, Xiaodan
- Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 14
Correlating the Efficiency and Nanomorphology of Polymer Blend Solar Cells Utilizing Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering
journal, December 2011
- Yan, Hongping; Collins, Brian A.; Gann, Eliot
- ACS Nano, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Non-Fullerene Electron Acceptors for Use in Organic Solar Cells
journal, October 2015
- Nielsen, Christian B.; Holliday, Sarah; Chen, Hung-Yang
- Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 48, Issue 11
Manipulation of Domain Purity and Orientational Ordering in High Performance All-Polymer Solar Cells
journal, August 2016
- Ye, Long; Jiao, Xuechen; Zhao, Wenchao
- Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 17
Aggregation and morphology control enables multiple cases of high-efficiency polymer solar cells
journal, November 2014
- Liu, Yuhang; Zhao, Jingbo; Li, Zhengke
- Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1
Determining the Role of Polymer Molecular Weight for High-Performance All-Polymer Solar Cells: Its Effect on Polymer Aggregation and Phase Separation
journal, February 2015
- Kang, Hyunbum; Uddin, Mohammad Afsar; Lee, Changyeon
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 137, Issue 6
Energy-Level Modulation of Small-Molecule Electron Acceptors to Achieve over 12% Efficiency in Polymer Solar Cells
journal, September 2016
- Li, Sunsun; Ye, Long; Zhao, Wenchao
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 42
Nika : software for two-dimensional data reduction
journal, March 2012
- Ilavsky, Jan
- Journal of Applied Crystallography, Vol. 45, Issue 2
Polarized X-ray scattering reveals non-crystalline orientational ordering in organic films
journal, April 2012
- Collins, B. A.; Cochran, J. E.; Yan, H.
- Nature Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 6
Non-fullerene acceptors for organic photovoltaics: an emerging horizon
journal, January 2014
- Lin, Yuze; Zhan, Xiaowei
- Materials Horizons, Vol. 1, Issue 5
All-Polymer Solar Cells Based on Absorption-Complementary Polymer Donor and Acceptor with High Power Conversion Efficiency of 8.27%
journal, December 2015
- Gao, Liang; Zhang, Zhi-Guo; Xue, Lingwei
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 9
Morphology control strategies for solution-processed organic semiconductor thin films
journal, January 2014
- Diao, Ying; Shaw, Leo; Bao, Zhenan
- Energy Environ. Sci., Vol. 7, Issue 7
Flow-enhanced solution printing of all-polymer solar cells
journal, August 2015
- Diao, Ying; Zhou, Yan; Kurosawa, Tadanori
- Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Correlation between Phase-Separated Domain Sizes of Active Layer and Photovoltaic Performances in All-Polymer Solar Cells
journal, July 2016
- Lee, Changyeon; Li, Yuxiang; Lee, Wonho
- Macromolecules, Vol. 49, Issue 14
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
- Fan, Baobing; Ying, Lei; Wang, Zhenfeng
- Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 10, Issue 5
Manipulating Aggregation and Molecular Orientation in All-Polymer Photovoltaic Cells
journal, August 2015
- Ye, Long; Jiao, Xuechen; Zhou, Meng
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 39
High Performance Organic Solar Cells Processed by Blade Coating in Air from a Benign Food Additive Solution
journal, October 2016
- Ye, Long; Xiong, Yuan; Yao, Huifeng
- Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 20
Effect of Processing Additives on the Solidification of Blade-Coated Polymer/Fullerene Blend Films via In-Situ Structure Measurements
journal, April 2013
- Shin, Nayool; Richter, Lee J.; Herzing, Andrew A.
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 7
Oligomer Molecules for Efficient Organic Photovoltaics
journal, November 2015
- Lin, Yuze; Zhan, Xiaowei
- Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 49, Issue 2
Donor polymer design enables efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells
journal, October 2016
- Li, Zhengke; Jiang, Kui; Yang, Guofang
- Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
Intensity Dependence of Current–Voltage Characteristics and Recombination in High-Efficiency Solution-Processed Small-Molecule Solar Cells
journal, April 2013
- Kyaw, Aung Ko Ko; Wang, Dong Hwan; Gupta, Vinay
- ACS Nano, Vol. 7, Issue 5
Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells
journal, November 2016
- Baran, Derya; Ashraf, Raja Shahid; Hanifi, David A.
- Nature Materials, Vol. 16, Issue 3
High-Efficiency Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells: Critical Factors that Affect Complex Multi-Length Scale Morphology and Device Performance
journal, December 2016
- Ye, Long; Zhao, Wenchao; Li, Sunsun
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 7
7.7% Efficient All-Polymer Solar Cells
journal, July 2015
- Hwang, Ye-Jin; Courtright, Brett A. E.; Ferreira, Amy S.
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 31
High-Efficiency All-Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Pair of Crystalline Low-Bandgap Polymers
journal, September 2014
- Mu, Cheng; Liu, Peng; Ma, Wei
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 42
Exploiting Noncovalently Conformational Locking as a Design Strategy for High Performance Fused-Ring Electron Acceptor Used in Polymer Solar Cells
journal, February 2017
- Liu, Yahui; Zhang, Zhe; Feng, Shiyu
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 139, Issue 9
Polymer donor–polymer acceptor (all-polymer) solar cells
journal, April 2013
- Facchetti, Antonio
- Materials Today, Vol. 16, Issue 4
In Situ X-ray Scattering Studies of the Influence of an Additive on the Formation of a Low-Bandgap Bulk Heterojunction
journal, February 2017
- Bokel, Felicia A.; Engmann, Sebastian; Herzing, Andrew A.
- Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 5