Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T‐2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

Hamid, Zeinab; Wadsworth, Andrew; Rezasoltani, Elham; Holliday, Sarah; Azzouzi, Mohammed; Neophytou, Marios; Guilbert, Anne A. Y.; Dong, Yifan; Little, Mark S.; Mukherjee, Subhrangsu; Herzing, Andrew A.; Bristow, Helen; Kline, R. Joseph; DeLongchamp, Dean M.; Bakulin, Artem A.; Durrant, James R.; Nelson, Jenny; McCulloch, Iain

doi:10.1002/aenm.201903248

Title: Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T‐2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

Journal Article · 29 January 2020 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201903248 · OSTI ID:1595868

^[1]; Wadsworth, Andrew ^[1]; Rezasoltani, Elham ^[2]; Holliday, Sarah ^[1]; Azzouzi, Mohammed ^[2]; Neophytou, Marios ^[3]; Guilbert, Anne A. Y. ^[2]; Dong, Yifan ^[1]; Little, Mark S. ^[1]; Mukherjee, Subhrangsu ^[4]; Herzing, Andrew A. ^[4]; Bristow, Helen ^[1]; Kline, R. Joseph ^[4]; DeLongchamp, Dean M. ^[4]; Bakulin, Artem A. ^[1]; Durrant, James R. ^[5]; Nelson, Jenny ^[2]; McCulloch, Iain ^[6]

Department of Chemistry and Centre for Plastic Electronics Imperial College London London W12 0BZ UK
Department of Physics and Centre for Plastic Electronics Imperial College London London SW7 2AZ UK
Physical Sciences and Engineering Division KAUST Solar Center (KSC) King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Thuwal 23955‐6900 Saudi Arabia
Material Measurement Laboratory National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg MD 20899 USA
Department of Chemistry and Centre for Plastic Electronics Imperial College London London W12 0BZ UK, SPECIFIC College of Engineering Swansea University Bay Campus SA1 8EN Swansea UK
Department of Chemistry and Centre for Plastic Electronics Imperial College London London W12 0BZ UK, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division KAUST Solar Center (KSC) King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Thuwal 23955‐6900 Saudi Arabia

Abstract The temperature‐dependent aggregation behavior of PffBT4T polymers used in organic solar cells plays a critical role in the formation of a favorable morphology in fullerene‐based devices. However, there is little investigation into the impact of donor/acceptor ratio on morphology tuning, especially for nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). Herein, the influence of composition on morphology is reported for blends of PffBT4T‐2DT with two NFAs, O‐IDTBR and O‐IDFBR. The monotectic phase behavior inferred from differential scanning calorimetry provides qualitative insight into the interplay between solid–liquid and liquid–liquid demixing. Transient absorption spectroscopy suggests that geminate recombination dominates charge decay and that the decay rate is insensitive to composition, corroborated by negligible changes in open‐circuit voltage. Exciton lifetimes are also insensitive to composition, which is attributed to the signal being dominated by acceptor excitons which are formed and decay in domains of similar size and purity irrespective of composition. A hierarchical morphology is observed, where the composition dependence of size scales and scattering intensity from resonant soft X‐ray scattering (R‐SoXS) is dominated by variations in volume fractions of polymer/polymer‐rich domains. Results suggest an optimal morphology where polymer crystallite size and connectivity are balanced, ensuring a high probability of hole extraction via such domains.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: DE‐AC02‐05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1595868

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials Vol. 10 Journal Issue: 8; ISSN 1614-6832

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

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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Cited by: 22 works

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