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Title: Weak Makes It Powerful: The Role of Cognate Small Molecules as an Alloy Donor in 2D/1A Ternary Fullerene Solar Cells for Finely Tuned Hierarchical Morphology in Thick Active Layers

Journal Article · · Small Methods
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [2]; ORCiD logo [9]
  1. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 Sweden
  2. Department of Chemistry and Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration &, Reconstruction Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clear Water Bay Kowloon 999077 Hong Kong
  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai 200240 China
  4. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 Sweden, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Vacuum Coating Technologies and New Energy Materials Siyuan Laboratory Department of Physics Jinan University Guangzhou 510632 China
  5. Key Laboratory of Biofuels Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Qingdao 266000 China
  6. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Vacuum Coating Technologies and New Energy Materials Siyuan Laboratory Department of Physics Jinan University Guangzhou 510632 China
  7. Department of Chemistry and Bioscience Aalborg University Aalborg East Aalborg DK‐9220 Denmark, Sino‐Danish Center for Education and Research Aarhus DK‐8000 Denmark
  8. Department of Physics and Astronomy Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai 200240 China, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences Beijing 100190 China
  9. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 Sweden, School of Materials Science and Engineering Zhengzhou University Zhengzhou 450001 China

Abstract Herein, a novel small molecule donor is first developed, FSM6, which is a cognate molecule to BTR possessing similar molecular structure with comparable optical absorption but different crystallinity. The efficient fullerene‐type ternary small molecular solar cells (SMSCs) based on an alloy donor of BTR and FSM6 in a thick film of 250 nm reveal the improved hierarchical phase separation morphology and molecular structural order of ternary active layers with improved crystallinity of the key donor component BTR. Furthermore, FSM6 as the key third component also plays a role of charge transfer accelerator in ternary SMSCs. As a result, the optimal ternary SMSCs based on BTR:FSM6:PC 71 BM achieve a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 10.21% with the synergistically improved open‐circuit voltage of 0.950 V, short‐circuit current density of 13.85 mA cm −2 , and fill factor of 77.6%, in comparison with either the binary SMSCs of BTR:PC 71 BM (PCE = 9.37%) or FSM6:PC 71 BM (PCE = 8.00%). This work provides a promising methodology to optimize device morphology for high‐performance ternary SMSCs by combining two cognate small molecules with similar absorption spectra but different crystallinity as an alloy donor.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1592790
Journal Information:
Small Methods, Journal Name: Small Methods Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 4; ISSN 2366-9608
Publisher:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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