Quantifying and Understanding Voltage Losses Due to Nonradiative Recombination in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells with Low Energetic Offsets

Rosenthal, Katie D.; Hughes, Michael P.; Luginbuhl, Benjamin R.; Ran, Niva A.; Karki, Akchheta; Ko, Seo‐Jin; Hu, Huawei; Wang, Ming; Ade, Harald; Nguyen, Thuc‐Quyen

doi:10.1002/aenm.201901077

Title: Quantifying and Understanding Voltage Losses Due to Nonradiative Recombination in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells with Low Energetic Offsets

Journal Article · 04 June 2019 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201901077 · OSTI ID:1525536

Rosenthal, Katie D. ^[1]; Hughes, Michael P. ^[1]; Luginbuhl, Benjamin R. ^[1]; Ran, Niva A. ^[1]; Karki, Akchheta ^[1]; Ko, Seo‐Jin ^[2]; Hu, Huawei ^[3]; Wang, Ming ^[1];

^[3];

^[1]

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara CA 93106 USA
Division of Advanced Materials Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) Daejeon 34114 Republic of Korea
Department of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL) North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA

Abstract Open‐circuit voltage ( V _OC ) losses in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) inhibit devices from reaching V _OC values comparable to the bandgap of the donor–acceptor blend. Specifically, nonradiative recombination losses (∆ V _nr ) are much greater in OPVs than in silicon or perovskite solar cells, yet the origins of this are not fully understood. To understand what makes a system have high or low loss, an investigation of the nonradiative recombination losses in a total of nine blend systems is carried out. An apparent relationship is observed between the relative domain purity of six blends and the degree of nonradiative recombination loss, where films exhibiting relatively less pure domains show lower ∆ V _nr than films with higher domain purity. Additionally, it is shown that when paired with a fullerene acceptor, polymer donors which have bulky backbone units to inhibit close π–π stacking exhibit lower nonradiative recombination losses than in blends where the polymer can pack more closely. This work reports a strategy that ensures ∆ V _nr can be measured accurately and reports key observations on the relationship between ∆ V _nr and properties of the donor/acceptor interface.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1525536

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials Journal Issue: 27 Vol. 9; ISSN 1614-6832

Publisher:: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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