Polymer donors with hydrophilic side-chains enabling efficient and thermally-stable polymer solar cells by non-halogenated solvent processing
<p>Polymer solar cells (PSCs) with high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and environment-friendly fabrication are the main requirements enabling their production in industrial scale. While the use of non-halogenated solvent processing is inevitable for the PSC fabrication, it significantly re...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Tsinghua University Press
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Nano Research Energy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NRE.2023.9120088 |
| Summary: | <p>Polymer solar cells (PSCs) with high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and environment-friendly fabrication are the main requirements enabling their production in industrial scale. While the use of non-halogenated solvent processing is inevitable for the PSC fabrication, it significantly reduces the processability of polymer donors (<italic>P</italic><sub>DS</sub>) and small-molecule acceptors (SMAs). This often results in unoptimized blend morphology and limits the device performance. To address this issue, hydrophilic oligoethylene glycol (OEG) side-chains are introduced into a <italic>P</italic><sub>D</sub> (2EG) to enhance the molecular compatibility between the <italic>P</italic><sub>D</sub> and L8-BO SMA. The 2EG <italic>P</italic><sub>D</sub> induces higher crystallinity and alleviates phase separation with the SMA compared to the reference <italic>P</italic><sub>D</sub> (PM7) with hydrocarbon side-chains. Consequently, the 2EG-based PSCs exhibit a higher PCE (15.8%) than the PM7-based PSCs (PCE = 14.4%) in the <italic>ortho</italic>-xylene based processing. Importantly, benefitted from the reduced phase separation and increased crystallinity of 2EG <italic>P</italic><sub>DS</sub>, the 2EG-based PSCs show enhanced thermal stability (84% of initial PCE after 120 h heating) compared to that of the PM7-based PSCs (60% of initial PCE after 120 h heating). This study demonstrates the potential of OEG side-chain-incorporated materials in developing efficient, stable, and eco-friendly PSCs.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 2791-0091 2790-8119 |