skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Simultaneous spin-coating and solvent annealing: Manipulating the active layer morphology to a power conversion efficiency of 9.6% in polymer solar cells

Journal Article · · Materials Horizons
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/C5MH00076A· OSTI ID:1319225
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [6];  [1]
  1. South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou (People's Republic of China)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  5. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States); Tokoku Univ., Aoba (Japan)

Here, we developed a simultaneous spin-coating/solvent-annealing process and demonstrated morphology optimization for PTB7 based organic photovoltaics. This novel processing method enhances the edge-on crystalline content in thin films and induces the formation of weak PCBM aggregates. As a result, the efficiency of polymer solar cells increased from 9.2% to a certified high efficiency of 9.61%, owing to an enhanced short-circuit current (Jsc, 18.4 mA cm–2vs. 17. 5 mA cm–2) and an improved fill factor.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Polymer-Based Materials for Harvesting Solar Energy (PHaSE); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1319225
Journal Information:
Materials Horizons, Vol. 2, Issue 6; ISSN 2051-6347
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 33 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (26)

A polymer tandem solar cell with 10.6% power conversion efficiency journal February 2013
Enhanced power-conversion efficiency in polymer solar cells using an inverted device structure journal August 2012
Recent progress in the design of narrow bandgap conjugated polymers for high-efficiency organic solar cells journal September 2012
On the morphology of polymer-based photovoltaics journal March 2012
Characterization of the morphology of solution-processed bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics journal December 2013
For the Bright Future-Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells with Power Conversion Efficiency of 7.4% journal May 2010
Highly Efficient Solar Cell Polymers Developed via Fine-Tuning of Structural and Electronic Properties journal June 2009
Synthesis of Fluorinated Polythienothiophene- co -benzodithiophenes and Effect of Fluorination on the Photovoltaic Properties journal February 2011
Polymer solar cells with enhanced open-circuit voltage and efficiency journal November 2009
Molecular Order in High-Efficiency Polymer/Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells journal September 2011
Absolute Measurement of Domain Composition and Nanoscale Size Distribution Explains Performance in PTB7:PC 71 BM Solar Cells journal October 2012
Understanding the Morphology of PTB7:PCBM Blends in Organic Photovoltaics journal October 2013
Hierarchical Nanomorphologies Promote Exciton Dissociation in Polymer/Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells journal September 2011
Direct formation of β phase in polyoctylfluorene thin film via solvent vapor assisted spin-coating method journal March 2013
Solvent vapor assisted spin-coating: A simple method to directly achieve high mobility from P3HT based thin film transistors journal November 2013
Device annealing effect in organic solar cells with blends of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) and soluble fullerene journal February 2005
A real-time study of the benefits of co-solvents in polymer solar cell processing journal February 2015
“Solvent Annealing” Effect in Polymer Solar Cells Based on Poly(3-hexylthiophene) and Methanofullerenes journal July 2007
High-efficiency solution processable polymer photovoltaic cells by self-organization of polymer blends journal October 2005
A Mechanistic Understanding of Processing Additive-Induced Efficiency Enhancement in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells journal October 2013
Role of Intermolecular Coupling in the Photophysics of Disordered Organic Semiconductors: Aggregate Emission in Regioregular Polythiophene journal May 2007
Simultaneous Use of Small‐ and Wide‐Angle X‐ray Techniques to Analyze Nanometerscale Phase Separation in Polymer Heterojunction Solar Cells journal July 2008
P3HT/PCBM Bulk Heterojunction Organic Photovoltaics: Correlating Efficiency and Morphology journal February 2011
Structural Characterization of Conjugated Polyelectrolyte Electron Transport Layers by NEXAFS Spectroscopy journal July 2008
Molecular-Scale and Nanoscale Morphology of P3HT:PCBM Bulk Heterojunctions: Energy-Filtered TEM and Low-Dose HREM journal February 2011
Soft x-ray scattering facility at the Advanced Light Source with real-time data processing and analysis journal April 2012

Cited By (5)

Morphology Control in Organic Solar Cells journal March 2018
Conjugation‐Curtailing of Benzodithionopyran‐Cored Molecular Acceptor Enables Efficient Air‐Processed Small Molecule Solar Cells journal September 2019
Dual-grating-induced light harvesting enhancement in organic solar cells journal January 2018
Deconstructing the behavior of donor–acceptor copolymers in solution & the melt: the case of PTB7 journal January 2019
Improving Photovoltaic Properties of P3HT:IC60BA through the Incorporation of Small Molecules journal January 2018