From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables development of efficient polymer solar cells [From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables efficient polymer solar cells]
Abstract
For optimum coverage of the optical spectrum and further enhancement of the carrier transport, ternary and even more multi-composition strategies have been universally explored. As PC71BM and PC61BM are both compatible with PTB7-Th and IEICO-4F takes advantage of optical absorption in the near-infrared region, we combined PTB7-Th:IEICO-4F:PC71BM:PC61BM quaternary compositions to fabricate high-efficiency polymer solar cells (PSCs) with good tolerance ratios of the fullerene acceptors. After blending the fullerene alloys PC71BM and PC61BM into the host PTB7-Th:IEICO-4F system, the optical response in the whole wavelength regime has been strengthened with significantly enhanced electron mobility. Concomitantly, the short-circuit current density (Jsc) surged from 22.07 to 24.37 mA cm–2 and the fill factor (FF) ascended from 58.24% to 69.30%, which finally resulted in a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.52%, which is much higher than that of the binary control device (9.67%). This significant improvement is attributed to the fine-tuning of the morphology of the photo-active layer and feasible carrier transport. Interestingly, this finding implicates the synergistic effect of PC71BM and PC61BM to successfully enhancing the carrier transport. In addition, it demonstrates a broad tolerance of the acceptor proportions, resulting in higher PCE values for the quaternary devices as compared to themore »
- Authors:
-
- Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Shenzhen (People's Republic of China); Harbin Inst. of Technology, Harbin (People's Republic of China)
- Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Shenzhen (People's Republic of China)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States); The Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1508131
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1499823
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Materials Chemistry. A
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 13; Journal ID: ISSN 2050-7488
- Publisher:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; polymer solar cells; quaternary; high tolerance; carrier transport
Citation Formats
Liu, Longzhu, Chen, Hui, Chen, Wei, and He, Feng. From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables development of efficient polymer solar cells [From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables efficient polymer solar cells]. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1039/C9TA00948E.
Liu, Longzhu, Chen, Hui, Chen, Wei, & He, Feng. From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables development of efficient polymer solar cells [From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables efficient polymer solar cells]. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9TA00948E
Liu, Longzhu, Chen, Hui, Chen, Wei, and He, Feng. Thu .
"From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables development of efficient polymer solar cells [From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables efficient polymer solar cells]". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9TA00948E. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1508131.
@article{osti_1508131,
title = {From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables development of efficient polymer solar cells [From binary to quaternary: high-tolerance of multi-acceptors enables efficient polymer solar cells]},
author = {Liu, Longzhu and Chen, Hui and Chen, Wei and He, Feng},
abstractNote = {For optimum coverage of the optical spectrum and further enhancement of the carrier transport, ternary and even more multi-composition strategies have been universally explored. As PC71BM and PC61BM are both compatible with PTB7-Th and IEICO-4F takes advantage of optical absorption in the near-infrared region, we combined PTB7-Th:IEICO-4F:PC71BM:PC61BM quaternary compositions to fabricate high-efficiency polymer solar cells (PSCs) with good tolerance ratios of the fullerene acceptors. After blending the fullerene alloys PC71BM and PC61BM into the host PTB7-Th:IEICO-4F system, the optical response in the whole wavelength regime has been strengthened with significantly enhanced electron mobility. Concomitantly, the short-circuit current density (Jsc) surged from 22.07 to 24.37 mA cm–2 and the fill factor (FF) ascended from 58.24% to 69.30%, which finally resulted in a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.52%, which is much higher than that of the binary control device (9.67%). This significant improvement is attributed to the fine-tuning of the morphology of the photo-active layer and feasible carrier transport. Interestingly, this finding implicates the synergistic effect of PC71BM and PC61BM to successfully enhancing the carrier transport. In addition, it demonstrates a broad tolerance of the acceptor proportions, resulting in higher PCE values for the quaternary devices as compared to the ternary devices. Lastly, generality for other systems evidences and provides guidelines for quaternary strategy utilization. Furthermore, the simplicity of quaternary strategies could be greatly beneficial to not yet elaborate commercial processes.},
doi = {10.1039/C9TA00948E},
journal = {Journal of Materials Chemistry. A},
number = 13,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Polymer-based solar cells
journal, November 2007
- Mayer, Alex C.; Scully, Shawn R.; Hardin, Brian E.
- Materials Today, Vol. 10, Issue 11
Design, Synthesis, and Photovoltaic Characterization of a Small Molecular Acceptor with an Ultra-Narrow Band Gap
journal, February 2017
- Yao, Huifeng; Cui, Yong; Yu, Runnan
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 56, Issue 11
A Chlorinated π-Conjugated Polymer Donor for Efficient Organic Solar Cells
journal, August 2018
- Chen, Hui; Hu, Zhiming; Wang, Huan
- Joule, Vol. 2, Issue 8
Quantitative Determination of Organic Semiconductor Microstructure from the Molecular to Device Scale
journal, June 2012
- Rivnay, Jonathan; Mannsfeld, Stefan C. B.; Miller, Chad E.
- Chemical Reviews, Vol. 112, Issue 10
Molecular Order Control of Non-fullerene Acceptors for High-Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells
journal, March 2019
- Li, Wei; Chen, Mengxue; Cai, Jinlong
- Joule, Vol. 3, Issue 3
Design and Synthesis of Chlorinated Benzothiadiazole-Based Polymers for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion
journal, March 2017
- Hu, Zhiming; Chen, Hui; Qu, Jianfei
- ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 2, Issue 4
Ternary blend polymer solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency
journal, August 2014
- Lu, Luyao; Xu, Tao; Chen, Wei
- Nature Photonics, Vol. 8, Issue 9
Ternary organic solar cells offer 14% power conversion efficiency
journal, December 2017
- Xiao, Zuo; Jia, Xue; Ding, Liming
- Science Bulletin, Vol. 62, Issue 23
Over 14% Efficiency in Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by a Chlorinated Polymer Donor
journal, March 2018
- Zhang, Shaoqing; Qin, Yunpeng; Zhu, Jie
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 20
Ternary Polymer Solar Cells based on Two Acceptors and One Donor for Achieving 12.2% Efficiency
journal, November 2016
- Zhao, Wenchao; Li, Sunsun; Zhang, Shaoqing
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 2
Polyamino acid interlayer facilitates electron extraction in narrow band gap fullerene-free organic solar cells with an outstanding short-circuit current
journal, August 2018
- Zheng, Zhong; Wang, Rong; Yao, Huifeng
- Nano Energy, Vol. 50
Controlling Blend Morphology for Ultrahigh Current Density in Nonfullerene Acceptor-Based Organic Solar Cells
journal, January 2018
- Song, Xin; Gasparini, Nicola; Ye, Long
- ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 3
High-Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells Enhanced by Solvent Treatment
journal, January 2013
- Zhou, Huiqiong; Zhang, Yuan; Seifter, Jason
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 25, Issue 11
Understanding the Thickness-Dependent Performance of Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells: The Influence of Mobility, Lifetime, and Space Charge
journal, November 2012
- Kirchartz, Thomas; Agostinelli, Tiziano; Campoy-Quiles, Mariano
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 23
Organic photovoltaics
journal, December 2012
- Su, Yu-Wei; Lan, Shang-Che; Wei, Kung-Hwa
- Materials Today, Vol. 15, Issue 12
Improving Device Efficiency of Polymer/Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells Through Enhanced Crystallinity and Reduced Grain Boundaries Induced by Solvent Additives
journal, June 2011
- Su, Ming-Shin; Kuo, Chih-Yin; Yuan, Mao-Chuan
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 23, Issue 29
Molecular Optimization Enables over 13% Efficiency in Organic Solar Cells
journal, May 2017
- Zhao, Wenchao; Li, Sunsun; Yao, Huifeng
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 139, Issue 21
Engineered exciton diffusion length enhances device efficiency in small molecule photovoltaics
journal, January 2018
- Sajjad, Muhammad T.; Blaszczyk, Oskar; Jagadamma, Lethy Krishnan
- Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 6, Issue 20
25th Anniversary Article: Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells: Understanding the Mechanism of Operation
journal, December 2013
- Heeger, Alan J.
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 1
From Alloy-Like to Cascade Blended Structure: Designing High-Performance All-Small-Molecule Ternary Solar Cells
journal, January 2018
- Wang, Zhen; Zhu, Xiangwei; Zhang, Jianqi
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 140, Issue 4
Interfacial Materials for Organic Solar Cells: Recent Advances and Perspectives
journal, February 2016
- Yin, Zhigang; Wei, Jiajun; Zheng, Qingdong
- Advanced Science, Vol. 3, Issue 8
Influence of Donor Polymer on the Molecular Ordering of Small Molecular Acceptors in Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells
journal, October 2017
- Hu, Huawei; Jiang, Kui; Chow, Philip C. Y.
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 5
Overcoming Fill Factor Reduction in Ternary Polymer Solar Cells by Matching the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital Energy Levels of Donor Polymers
journal, December 2017
- Lee, Jihoon; Tamilavan, Vellaiappillai; Rho, Kyung Hwan
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 9
Fullerene Derivative-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanofilm as the Cathode of Inverted Polymer Solar Cells with Low-Bandgap Polymer (PTB7-Th) for High Performance
journal, August 2013
- Liao, Sih-Hao; Jhuo, Hong-Jyun; Cheng, Yu-Shan
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 25, Issue 34
Side Chain Selection for Designing Highly Efficient Photovoltaic Polymers with 2D-Conjugated Structure
journal, July 2014
- Zhang, Shaoqing; Ye, Long; Zhao, Wenchao
- Macromolecules, Vol. 47, Issue 14
Polymer Solar Cells That Use Self-Assembled-Monolayer- Modified ZnO/Metals as Cathodes
journal, June 2008
- Yip, Hin-Lap; Hau, Steven K.; Baek, Nam Seob
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 20, Issue 12, p. 2376-2382
Enhancing photovoltaic performance by tuning the domain sizes of a small-molecule acceptor by side-chain-engineered polymer donors
journal, January 2019
- Lin, Yu-Che; Lu, Yi-Ju; Tsao, Cheng-Si
- Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 7, Issue 7
Molecular engineering of side chain architecture of conjugated polymers enhances performance of photovoltaics by tuning ternary blend structures
journal, January 2018
- Lin, Yu-Che; Cheng, Hao-Wen; Su, Yu-Wei
- Nano Energy, Vol. 43
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
High-performance ternary blend polymer solar cells involving both energy transfer and hole relay processes
journal, June 2015
- Lu, Luyao; Chen, Wei; Xu, Tao
- Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1
Alloy Acceptor: Superior Alternative to PCBM toward Efficient and Stable Organic Solar Cells
journal, June 2016
- Cheng, Pei; Yan, Cenqi; Wu, Yang
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 36
Achieving High-Performance Ternary Organic Solar Cells through Tuning Acceptor Alloy
journal, December 2016
- Chen, Yusheng; Ye, Pan; Zhu, Zhen-Gang
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 6
Fullerene-Free Polymer Solar Cells with over 11% Efficiency and Excellent Thermal Stability
journal, April 2016
- Zhao, Wenchao; Qian, Deping; Zhang, Shaoqing
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 23
Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Main-Chain Twisted Low-Bandgap Acceptor with Power Conversion Efficiency of 13.2%
journal, May 2018
- Wang, Weiping; Zhao, Baofeng; Cong, Zhiyuan
- ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 7
Comparing the device physics, dynamics and morphology of polymer solar cells employing conventional PCBM and non-fullerene polymer acceptor N2200
journal, May 2017
- Yuan, Jianyu; Guo, Wenping; Xia, Yuxin
- Nano Energy, Vol. 35
Fused Hexacyclic Nonfullerene Acceptor with Strong Near-Infrared Absorption for Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with 9.77% Efficiency
journal, June 2017
- Wang, Wei; Yan, Cenqi; Lau, Tsz-Ki
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 31
High-Performance Ternary Organic Solar Cell Enabled by a Thick Active Layer Containing a Liquid Crystalline Small Molecule Donor
journal, February 2017
- Zhang, Guichuan; Zhang, Kai; Yin, Qingwu
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 139, Issue 6
Wearable Solar Cells by Stacking Textile Electrodes
journal, April 2014
- Pan, Shaowu; Yang, Zhibin; Chen, Peining
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 53, Issue 24
Complementary solvent additives tune the orientation of polymer lamellae, reduce the sizes of aggregated fullerene domains, and enhance the performance of bulk heterojunction solar cells
journal, January 2014
- Liu, Chih-Ming; Su, Yu-Wei; Jiang, Jian-Ming
- J. Mater. Chem. A, Vol. 2, Issue 48
High-efficiency quaternary polymer solar cells enabled with binary fullerene additives to reduce nonfullerene acceptor optical band gap and improve carriers transport
journal, August 2018
- Li, Weiping; Yan, Dong; Liu, Feng
- Science China Chemistry, Vol. 61, Issue 12
Influence of Polymer Compatibility on the Open-Circuit Voltage in Ternary Blend Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells
journal, June 2014
- Khlyabich, Petr P.; Rudenko, Andrey E.; Street, Robert A.
- ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 6, Issue 13
Efficient Ternary Polymer Solar Cells with Two Well-Compatible Donors and One Ultranarrow Bandgap Nonfullerene Acceptor
journal, January 2018
- Ma, Xiaoling; Mi, Yang; Zhang, Fujun
- Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 11
The Active Layer Morphology of Organic Solar Cells Probed with Grazing Incidence Scattering Techniques
journal, February 2014
- Müller-Buschbaum, Peter
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 46
Diffusion Lengths of Excitons in Polymers in Relation to External Quantum Efficiency of the Photocurrent of Solar Cells
journal, December 2013
- Leow, Cheahli; Ohnishi, Toshihiro; Matsumura, Michio
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 118, Issue 1
13%-Efficiency Quaternary Polymer Solar Cell with Nonfullerene and Fullerene as Mixed Electron Acceptor Materials
journal, December 2018
- Yan, Dong; Xin, Jingming; Li, Weiping
- ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 11, Issue 1
Stretchable and waterproof elastomer-coated organic photovoltaics for washable electronic textile applications
journal, September 2017
- Jinno, Hiroaki; Fukuda, Kenjiro; Xu, Xiaomin
- Nature Energy, Vol. 2, Issue 10
Controlling Exciton Diffusion and Fullerene Distribution in Photovoltaic Blends by Side Chain Modification
journal, July 2015
- Sajjad, Muhammad T.; Ward, Alexander J.; Kästner, Christian
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 6, Issue 15
Wearable Solar Cells by Stacking Textile Electrodes
journal, April 2014
- Pan, Shaowu; Yang, Zhibin; Chen, Peining
- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 126, Issue 24
Design, Synthesis, and Photovoltaic Characterization of a Small Molecular Acceptor with an Ultra-Narrow Band Gap
journal, February 2017
- Yao, Huifeng; Cui, Yong; Yu, Runnan
- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 129, Issue 11
Organic Photovoltaics
audiovisual, January 2015
- Jørgensen, Mikkel
- Technical University of Denmark (DTU), The Department of Energy Conversion and Storage
Organic photovoltaics
journal, November 2013
- Demming, Anna; Krebs, Frederik C.; Chen, Hongzheng
- Nanotechnology, Vol. 24, Issue 48
Works referencing / citing this record:
Quaternary Solar Cells with 12.5% Efficiency Enabled with Non‐Fullerene and Fullerene Acceptor Guests to Improve Open Circuit Voltage and Film Morphology
journal, September 2019
- Li, Weiping; Liu, Wenxu; Zhang, Xin
- Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Vol. 40, Issue 21