Understanding the Impact of Oligomeric Polystyrene Side Chain Arrangement on the All‐Polymer Solar Cell Performance
Abstract
Abstract The introduction of oligomeric polystyrene (PS) side chains into the conjugated backbone is proven to enhance the processability and electronic properties of semiconducting polymers. Here, two series of donor and acceptor polymers are prepared with different molar percentages of PS side chains to elucidate the effect of their substitution arrangement on the all‐polymer solar cell performance. The observed device performance is lower when the PS side chains are substituted on the donor polymer and higher when on the acceptor polymer, indicating a clear arrangement effect of the PS side chain. The incorporation of PS side chains to the acceptor polymer contributes to the decrease in phase separation domain size in the blend films. However, the reduced domain size was still an order of magnitude larger than the typical exciton diffusion length. A detailed morphological study together with the estimation of solubility parameter of the pristine PS, donor, and acceptor polymers reveals that the relative value of solubility parameter of each component dominantly contributes to the purity of the phase separated domain, which strongly impacts the amount of generated photocurrent and overall solar cell performance. This study provides an understanding of the design strategies to improve the all‐polymer solar cells.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1]
- Department of Chemical Engineering Stanford University Stanford CA 94305‐4125 USA
- Department of Chemical Engineering Stanford University Stanford CA 94305‐4125 USA, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Menlo Park CA 94025 USA
- Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Menlo Park CA 94025 USA
- Advanced Light Source Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 USA
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1390389
- Grant/Contract Number:
- DE‐FOA‐0000654‐158; DE‐AC02‐05CH11231; DE‐AC02‐76SF00515
- Resource Type:
- Publisher's Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Energy Materials
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials Journal Volume: 8 Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1614-6832
- Publisher:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Country of Publication:
- Germany
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Kurosawa, Tadanori, Gu, Xiaodan, Gu, Kevin L., Zhou, Yan, Yan, Hongping, Wang, Cheng, Wang, Ging‐Ji Nathan, Toney, Michael F., and Bao, Zhenan. Understanding the Impact of Oligomeric Polystyrene Side Chain Arrangement on the All‐Polymer Solar Cell Performance. Germany: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/aenm.201701552.
Kurosawa, Tadanori, Gu, Xiaodan, Gu, Kevin L., Zhou, Yan, Yan, Hongping, Wang, Cheng, Wang, Ging‐Ji Nathan, Toney, Michael F., & Bao, Zhenan. Understanding the Impact of Oligomeric Polystyrene Side Chain Arrangement on the All‐Polymer Solar Cell Performance. Germany. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701552
Kurosawa, Tadanori, Gu, Xiaodan, Gu, Kevin L., Zhou, Yan, Yan, Hongping, Wang, Cheng, Wang, Ging‐Ji Nathan, Toney, Michael F., and Bao, Zhenan. Thu .
"Understanding the Impact of Oligomeric Polystyrene Side Chain Arrangement on the All‐Polymer Solar Cell Performance". Germany. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701552.
@article{osti_1390389,
title = {Understanding the Impact of Oligomeric Polystyrene Side Chain Arrangement on the All‐Polymer Solar Cell Performance},
author = {Kurosawa, Tadanori and Gu, Xiaodan and Gu, Kevin L. and Zhou, Yan and Yan, Hongping and Wang, Cheng and Wang, Ging‐Ji Nathan and Toney, Michael F. and Bao, Zhenan},
abstractNote = {Abstract The introduction of oligomeric polystyrene (PS) side chains into the conjugated backbone is proven to enhance the processability and electronic properties of semiconducting polymers. Here, two series of donor and acceptor polymers are prepared with different molar percentages of PS side chains to elucidate the effect of their substitution arrangement on the all‐polymer solar cell performance. The observed device performance is lower when the PS side chains are substituted on the donor polymer and higher when on the acceptor polymer, indicating a clear arrangement effect of the PS side chain. The incorporation of PS side chains to the acceptor polymer contributes to the decrease in phase separation domain size in the blend films. However, the reduced domain size was still an order of magnitude larger than the typical exciton diffusion length. A detailed morphological study together with the estimation of solubility parameter of the pristine PS, donor, and acceptor polymers reveals that the relative value of solubility parameter of each component dominantly contributes to the purity of the phase separated domain, which strongly impacts the amount of generated photocurrent and overall solar cell performance. This study provides an understanding of the design strategies to improve the all‐polymer solar cells.},
doi = {10.1002/aenm.201701552},
journal = {Advanced Energy Materials},
number = 2,
volume = 8,
place = {Germany},
year = {Thu Sep 14 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Thu Sep 14 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701552
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