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Title: Investigating charge generation in polymer:non-fullerene acceptor bulk heterojunction films

Abstract

Non-fullerene acceptors are now capable of being used in high efficiency bulk heterojunction (BHJ) donor-acceptor organic solar cells. Acceptors comprising single or multiple linked chromophores have been used. We have developed a new non-fullerene molecular acceptor as well as two non-polymeric macromolecular materials that contain four equivalents of a similar chromophore, but can adopt different spatial arrangements of the chromophores. We compare the effect of having single and multiple chromophores within a macromolecule on the charge generation processes in P3HT:non-fullerene acceptor BHJ films using Transient Absorption Spectroscopy (TAS) and Time Resolved Microwave Conductivity (TRMC) measurements. It was found from the TAS measurements that at low weight percent (5 wt%) the single chromophore formed more polarons than the acceptors in which chromophores were linked, due to it having a more even distribution within the film. At higher concentrations (50 wt%) the trend was reversed due to the single chromophore forming crystalline domains, which reduced the interface area with the P3HT donor. The TRMC measurements showed that more mobile carriers were formed in the macromolecular acceptors when used at low concentrations in the blend and, independent of concentration, mobile carriers had a longer lifetime when compared to films containing the molecular material,more » which we ascribe to the charges being able to sample more than one chromophore and thus reduce recombination events.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]
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  1. Univ. of Queensland, St. Lucia (Australia)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
OSTI Identifier:
1424894
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1496431
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-68879
Journal ID: ISSN 1566-1199
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308; AC36-08-GO28038
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Organic Electronics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 55; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1566-1199
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; 42 ENGINEERING; organic photovoltaics; non-fullerene acceptor; synthesis; charge generation

Citation Formats

Stoltzfus, Dani M., Larson, Bryon W., Zarrabi, Nasim, Shaw, Paul E., Clulow, Andrew J., Jin, Hui, Burn, Paul L., Gentle, Ian R., and Kopidakis, Nikos. Investigating charge generation in polymer:non-fullerene acceptor bulk heterojunction films. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1016/j.orgel.2018.01.017.
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Stoltzfus, Dani M., Larson, Bryon W., Zarrabi, Nasim, Shaw, Paul E., Clulow, Andrew J., Jin, Hui, Burn, Paul L., Gentle, Ian R., & Kopidakis, Nikos. Investigating charge generation in polymer:non-fullerene acceptor bulk heterojunction films. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgel.2018.01.017
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Stoltzfus, Dani M., Larson, Bryon W., Zarrabi, Nasim, Shaw, Paul E., Clulow, Andrew J., Jin, Hui, Burn, Paul L., Gentle, Ian R., and Kopidakis, Nikos. Wed . "Investigating charge generation in polymer:non-fullerene acceptor bulk heterojunction films". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgel.2018.01.017. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1424894.
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@article{osti_1424894,
title = {Investigating charge generation in polymer:non-fullerene acceptor bulk heterojunction films},
author = {Stoltzfus, Dani M. and Larson, Bryon W. and Zarrabi, Nasim and Shaw, Paul E. and Clulow, Andrew J. and Jin, Hui and Burn, Paul L. and Gentle, Ian R. and Kopidakis, Nikos},
abstractNote = {Non-fullerene acceptors are now capable of being used in high efficiency bulk heterojunction (BHJ) donor-acceptor organic solar cells. Acceptors comprising single or multiple linked chromophores have been used. We have developed a new non-fullerene molecular acceptor as well as two non-polymeric macromolecular materials that contain four equivalents of a similar chromophore, but can adopt different spatial arrangements of the chromophores. We compare the effect of having single and multiple chromophores within a macromolecule on the charge generation processes in P3HT:non-fullerene acceptor BHJ films using Transient Absorption Spectroscopy (TAS) and Time Resolved Microwave Conductivity (TRMC) measurements. It was found from the TAS measurements that at low weight percent (5 wt%) the single chromophore formed more polarons than the acceptors in which chromophores were linked, due to it having a more even distribution within the film. At higher concentrations (50 wt%) the trend was reversed due to the single chromophore forming crystalline domains, which reduced the interface area with the P3HT donor. The TRMC measurements showed that more mobile carriers were formed in the macromolecular acceptors when used at low concentrations in the blend and, independent of concentration, mobile carriers had a longer lifetime when compared to films containing the molecular material, which we ascribe to the charges being able to sample more than one chromophore and thus reduce recombination events.},
doi = {10.1016/j.orgel.2018.01.017},
journal = {Organic Electronics},
number = C,
volume = 55,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {1}
}
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Fig. 1 Fig. 1: Structures of the compounds used in this study.
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