Synergy of Liquid-Crystalline Small-Molecule and Polymeric Donors Delivers Uncommon Morphology Evolution and 16.6% Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics
Abstract
Achieving an ideal morphology is an imperative avenue for enhancing key parameters toward high-performing organic solar cells (OSCs). Among a myriad of morphological-control methods, the strategy of incorporating a third component with structural similarity and crystallinity difference to construct ternary OSCs has emerged as an effective approach to regulate morphology. A nematic liquid-crystalline benzodithiophene terthiophene rhodamine (BTR) molecule, which possesses the same alkylthio-thienyl-substituted benzo moiety but obviously stronger crystallinity compared to classical medium-bandgap polymeric donor PM6, is employed as a third component to construct ternary OSCs based on a PM6:BTR:Y6 system. The doping of BTR (5 wt%) is found to be enough to improve the OSC morphology—significantly enhancing the crystallinity of the photoactive layer while slightly reducing the donor/acceptor phase separation scale simultaneously. Rarely is such a morphology evolution reported. It positively affects the electronic properties of the device—prolongs the carrier lifetime, shortens the photocurrent decay time, facilitates exciton dissociation, charge transport, and collection, and ultimately boosts the power conversion efficiency from 15.7% to 16.6%. This result demonstrates that the successful synergy of liquid-crystalline small-molecule and polymeric donors delicately adjusts the active-layer morphology and refines device performance, which brings vibrancy to the OSC research field.
- Authors:
-
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. Shenzhen (China). ShenZhen Research Inst.; The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ., Hung Hum Kowloon, Hong Kong (China). Dept. of Electronic and Information Engineering
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. Shenzhen (China). ShenZhen Research Inst.; The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ., Hung Hum Kowloon, Hong Kong (China). Dept. of Electronic and Information Engineering; Chongqing Inst. of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chongqing (China). Organic Semiconductor Research Center
- Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology (HKUST), Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China). Center for Tissue Restoration & Reconstruction. Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research. Dept. of Chemistry
- Shanghai Jiaotong Univ., Shanghai (China). Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
- Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology (HKUST), Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China). Center for Tissue Restoration & Reconstruction. Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research. Dept. of Chemistry
- Chongqing Inst. of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chongqing (China). Organic Semiconductor Research Center
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1816503
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Science
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 15; Journal ID: ISSN 2198-3844
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; liquid-crystalline molecules; morphology; organic solar cells; ternary structures
Citation Formats
Yan, Cenqi, Tang, Hua, Ma, Ruijie, Zhang, Ming, Liu, Tao, Lv, Jie, Huang, Jiaming, Yang, YanKang, Xu, Tongle, Kan, Zhipeng, Yan, He, Liu, Feng, Lu, Shirong, and Li, Gang. Synergy of Liquid-Crystalline Small-Molecule and Polymeric Donors Delivers Uncommon Morphology Evolution and 16.6% Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1002/advs.202000149.
Yan, Cenqi, Tang, Hua, Ma, Ruijie, Zhang, Ming, Liu, Tao, Lv, Jie, Huang, Jiaming, Yang, YanKang, Xu, Tongle, Kan, Zhipeng, Yan, He, Liu, Feng, Lu, Shirong, & Li, Gang. Synergy of Liquid-Crystalline Small-Molecule and Polymeric Donors Delivers Uncommon Morphology Evolution and 16.6% Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202000149
Yan, Cenqi, Tang, Hua, Ma, Ruijie, Zhang, Ming, Liu, Tao, Lv, Jie, Huang, Jiaming, Yang, YanKang, Xu, Tongle, Kan, Zhipeng, Yan, He, Liu, Feng, Lu, Shirong, and Li, Gang. Thu .
"Synergy of Liquid-Crystalline Small-Molecule and Polymeric Donors Delivers Uncommon Morphology Evolution and 16.6% Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202000149. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1816503.
@article{osti_1816503,
title = {Synergy of Liquid-Crystalline Small-Molecule and Polymeric Donors Delivers Uncommon Morphology Evolution and 16.6% Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics},
author = {Yan, Cenqi and Tang, Hua and Ma, Ruijie and Zhang, Ming and Liu, Tao and Lv, Jie and Huang, Jiaming and Yang, YanKang and Xu, Tongle and Kan, Zhipeng and Yan, He and Liu, Feng and Lu, Shirong and Li, Gang},
abstractNote = {Achieving an ideal morphology is an imperative avenue for enhancing key parameters toward high-performing organic solar cells (OSCs). Among a myriad of morphological-control methods, the strategy of incorporating a third component with structural similarity and crystallinity difference to construct ternary OSCs has emerged as an effective approach to regulate morphology. A nematic liquid-crystalline benzodithiophene terthiophene rhodamine (BTR) molecule, which possesses the same alkylthio-thienyl-substituted benzo moiety but obviously stronger crystallinity compared to classical medium-bandgap polymeric donor PM6, is employed as a third component to construct ternary OSCs based on a PM6:BTR:Y6 system. The doping of BTR (5 wt%) is found to be enough to improve the OSC morphology—significantly enhancing the crystallinity of the photoactive layer while slightly reducing the donor/acceptor phase separation scale simultaneously. Rarely is such a morphology evolution reported. It positively affects the electronic properties of the device—prolongs the carrier lifetime, shortens the photocurrent decay time, facilitates exciton dissociation, charge transport, and collection, and ultimately boosts the power conversion efficiency from 15.7% to 16.6%. This result demonstrates that the successful synergy of liquid-crystalline small-molecule and polymeric donors delicately adjusts the active-layer morphology and refines device performance, which brings vibrancy to the OSC research field.},
doi = {10.1002/advs.202000149},
journal = {Advanced Science},
number = 15,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Thu Jun 18 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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