DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Optimized active layer morphology toward efficient and polymer batch insensitive organic solar cells

Abstract

Abstract Morphology control in laboratory and industry setting remains as a major challenge for organic solar cells (OSCs) due to the difference in film-drying kinetics between spin coating and the printing process. A two-step sequential deposition method is developed to control the active layer morphology. A conjugated polymer that self-assembles into a well-defined fibril structure is used as the first layer, and then a non-fullerene acceptor is introduced into the fibril mesh as the second layer to form an optimal morphology. A benefit of the combined fibril network morphology and non-fullerene acceptor properties was that a high efficiency of 16.5% (certified as 16.1%) was achieved. The preformed fibril network layer and the sequentially deposited non-fullerene acceptor form a robust morphology that is insensitive to the polymer batches, solving a notorious issue in OSCs. Such progress demonstrates that the utilization of polymer fibril networks in a sequential deposition process is a promising approach towards the fabrication of high-efficiency OSCs.

Authors:
; ; ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1632019
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1817152
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Volume: 11 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Citation Formats

Weng, Kangkang, Ye, Linglong, Zhu, Lei, Xu, Jinqiu, Zhou, Jiajia, Feng, Xiang, Lu, Guanghao, Tan, Songting, Liu, Feng, and Sun, Yanming. Optimized active layer morphology toward efficient and polymer batch insensitive organic solar cells. United Kingdom: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16621-x.
Weng, Kangkang, Ye, Linglong, Zhu, Lei, Xu, Jinqiu, Zhou, Jiajia, Feng, Xiang, Lu, Guanghao, Tan, Songting, Liu, Feng, & Sun, Yanming. Optimized active layer morphology toward efficient and polymer batch insensitive organic solar cells. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16621-x
Weng, Kangkang, Ye, Linglong, Zhu, Lei, Xu, Jinqiu, Zhou, Jiajia, Feng, Xiang, Lu, Guanghao, Tan, Songting, Liu, Feng, and Sun, Yanming. Fri . "Optimized active layer morphology toward efficient and polymer batch insensitive organic solar cells". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16621-x.
@article{osti_1632019,
title = {Optimized active layer morphology toward efficient and polymer batch insensitive organic solar cells},
author = {Weng, Kangkang and Ye, Linglong and Zhu, Lei and Xu, Jinqiu and Zhou, Jiajia and Feng, Xiang and Lu, Guanghao and Tan, Songting and Liu, Feng and Sun, Yanming},
abstractNote = {Abstract Morphology control in laboratory and industry setting remains as a major challenge for organic solar cells (OSCs) due to the difference in film-drying kinetics between spin coating and the printing process. A two-step sequential deposition method is developed to control the active layer morphology. A conjugated polymer that self-assembles into a well-defined fibril structure is used as the first layer, and then a non-fullerene acceptor is introduced into the fibril mesh as the second layer to form an optimal morphology. A benefit of the combined fibril network morphology and non-fullerene acceptor properties was that a high efficiency of 16.5% (certified as 16.1%) was achieved. The preformed fibril network layer and the sequentially deposited non-fullerene acceptor form a robust morphology that is insensitive to the polymer batches, solving a notorious issue in OSCs. Such progress demonstrates that the utilization of polymer fibril networks in a sequential deposition process is a promising approach towards the fabrication of high-efficiency OSCs.},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-16621-x},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 11,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16621-x

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 159 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Polymer-based solar cells
journal, November 2007


Layer-by-Layer Processed Organic Solar Cells
journal, April 2016


Sequential Processing for Organic Photovoltaics: Design Rules for Morphology Control by Tailored Semi-Orthogonal Solvent Blends
journal, March 2015

  • Aguirre, Jordan C.; Hawks, Steven A.; Ferreira, Amy S.
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201402020

Optimized Fibril Network Morphology by Precise Side-Chain Engineering to Achieve High-Performance Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells
journal, May 2018

  • Liu, Tao; Huo, Lijun; Chandrabose, Sreelakshmi
  • Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 26
  • DOI: 10.1002/adma.201707353

Optimal bulk-heterojunction morphology enabled by fibril network strategy for high-performance organic solar cells
journal, May 2019


Morphology evolution via self-organization and lateral and vertical diffusion in polymer:fullerene solar cell blends
journal, January 2008

  • Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Ferenczi, Toby; Agostinelli, Tiziano
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat2102

A high-mobility electron-transporting polymer for printed transistors
journal, January 2009

  • Yan, He; Chen, Zhihua; Zheng, Yan
  • Nature, Vol. 457, Issue 7230, p. 679-686
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature07727

Aggregation‐Induced Multilength Scaled Morphology Enabling 11.76% Efficiency in All‐Polymer Solar Cells Using Printing Fabrication
journal, August 2019


Fast Printing and In Situ Morphology Observation of Organic Photovoltaics Using Slot-Die Coating
journal, December 2014

  • Liu, Feng; Ferdous, Sunzida; Schaible, Eric
  • Advanced Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1002/adma.201404040

Achieving over 16% efficiency for single-junction organic solar cells
journal, March 2019


Miscibility, Crystallinity, and Phase Development in P3HT/PCBM Solar Cells: Toward an Enlightened Understanding of Device Morphology and Stability
journal, November 2011

  • Collins, Brian A.; Tumbleston, John R.; Ade, Harald
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 2, Issue 24
  • DOI: 10.1021/jz2014902

Single-Junction Organic Solar Cells Based on a Novel Wide-Bandgap Polymer with Efficiency of 9.7%
journal, April 2015


Time-Dependent Morphology Evolution by Annealing Processes on Polymer:Fullerene Blend Solar Cells
journal, March 2009

  • Jo, Jang; Kim, Seok-Soon; Na, Seok-In
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 19, Issue 6, p. 866-874
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.200800968

Thermally Stable, Efficient Polymer Solar Cells with Nanoscale Control of the Interpenetrating Network Morphology
journal, October 2005

  • Ma, W.; Yang, C.; Gong, X.
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 10, p. 1617-1622
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.200500211

Single-Junction Organic Solar Cell with over 15% Efficiency Using Fused-Ring Acceptor with Electron-Deficient Core
journal, April 2019


Ternary organic solar cells based on two compatible PDI-based acceptors with an enhanced power conversion efficiency
journal, January 2019

  • Weng, Kangkang; Li, Chao; Bi, Pengqing
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 7, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1039/C8TA12034J

Solution-processed small-molecule solar cells with 6.7% efficiency
journal, November 2011

  • Sun, Yanming; Welch, Gregory C.; Leong, Wei Lin
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 1, p. 44-48
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat3160

Organic Photovoltaics with Multiple Donor–Acceptor Pairs
journal, November 2018

  • Lee, Jungho; Lee, Sang Myeon; Chen, Shanshan
  • Advanced Materials, Vol. 31, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1002/adma.201804762

Organic and solution-processed tandem solar cells with 17.3% efficiency
journal, August 2018


Improved Charge Transport and Reduced Nonradiative Energy Loss Enable Over 16% Efficiency in Ternary Polymer Solar Cells
journal, June 2019


Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions
journal, December 1995


Recent Advances in Wide-Bandgap Photovoltaic Polymers
journal, March 2017


Printing Semiconductor-Insulator Polymer Bilayers for High-Performance Coplanar Field-Effect Transistors
journal, November 2017


Giant Transconductance of Organic Field-Effect Transistors in Compensation Electric Fields
journal, November 2018


Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells
journal, November 2016

  • Baran, Derya; Ashraf, Raja Shahid; Hanifi, David A.
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 16, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat4797

From Binary to Ternary Solvent: Morphology Fine-tuning of D/A Blends in PDPP3T-based Polymer Solar Cells
journal, September 2012


Sequential Processing: Control of Nanomorphology in Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells
journal, August 2011

  • Wang, Dong Hwan; Moon, Ji Sun; Seifter, Jason
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl202320r

Correlations between Performance of Organic Solar Cells and Film‐Depth‐Dependent Optical and Electronic Variations
journal, February 2019

  • Wang, Zihao; Hu, Yupeng; Xiao, Tong
  • Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1002/adom.201900152

Film-Depth-Dependent Light Absorption and Charge Transport for Polymer Electronics: A Case Study on Semiconductor/Insulator Blends by Plasma Etching
journal, November 2016

  • Bu, Laju; Gao, Shuang; Wang, Weichen
  • Advanced Electronic Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1002/aelm.201600359

n-Type Water/Alcohol-Soluble Naphthalene Diimide-Based Conjugated Polymers for High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells
journal, February 2016

  • Wu, Zhihong; Sun, Chen; Dong, Sheng
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 138, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b12664

Polymer Donors for High-Performance Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cells
journal, January 2019

  • Fu, Huiting; Wang, Zhaohui; Sun, Yanming
  • Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 58, Issue 14
  • DOI: 10.1002/anie.201806291

Quantitative relations between interaction parameter, miscibility and function in organic solar cells
journal, February 2018


On the morphology of polymer-based photovoltaics
journal, March 2012

  • Liu, Feng; Gu, Yu; Jung, Jae Woong
  • Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, Vol. 50, Issue 15
  • DOI: 10.1002/polb.23063

Over 16% efficiency organic photovoltaic cells enabled by a chlorinated acceptor with increased open-circuit voltages
journal, June 2019


High internal quantum efficiency in fullerene solar cells based on crosslinked polymer donor networks
journal, January 2012

  • Liu, Bo; Png, Rui-Qi; Zhao, Li-Hong
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2211

High-Performance Non-Fullerene Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Pair of Donor-Acceptor Materials with Complementary Absorption Properties
journal, October 2015

  • Lin, Haoran; Chen, Shangshang; Li, Zhengke
  • Advanced Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 45
  • DOI: 10.1002/adma.201502775

A real-time study of the benefits of co-solvents in polymer solar cell processing
journal, February 2015

  • van Franeker, Jacobus J.; Turbiez, Mathieu; Li, Weiwei
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7229

Insertion of chlorine atoms onto π-bridges of conjugated polymer enables improved photovoltaic performance
journal, April 2019


A universal layer-by-layer solution-processing approach for efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells
journal, January 2019

  • Sun, Rui; Guo, Jing; Sun, Chenkai
  • Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 12, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1039/C8EE02560F

Charge carrier recombination in organic solar cells
journal, December 2013


A generic green solvent concept boosting the power conversion efficiency of all-polymer solar cells to 11%
journal, January 2019

  • Li, Zhenye; Ying, Lei; Zhu, Peng
  • Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 12, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1039/C8EE02863J

Morphology Control Enables Efficient Ternary Organic Solar Cells
journal, August 2018


Polymer Crystallization of Partially Miscible Polythiophene/Fullerene Mixtures Controls Morphology
journal, July 2011

  • Kozub, Derek R.; Vakhshouri, Kiarash; Orme, Lisa M.
  • Macromolecules, Vol. 44, Issue 14
  • DOI: 10.1021/ma200855r

Sequentially solution-processed, nanostructured polymer photovoltaics using selective solvents
journal, January 2014

  • Kim, Do Hwan; Mei, Jianguo; Ayzner, Alexander L.
  • Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 7, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1039/c3ee43541e