Incorporating narrow‐bandgap near‐infrared absorbers as the third component in a donor/acceptor binary blend is a new strategy to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics (OPV). However, there are two main restrictions: potential charge recombination in the narrow‐gap material and miscompatibility between each component. The optimized design is to employ a third component (structurally similar to the donor or acceptor) with a lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level similar to the acceptor and a highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level similar to the donor. In this design, enhanced absorption of the active layer and enhanced charge transfer can be realized without breaking the optimized morphology of the active layer. Herein, in order to realize this design, two new narrow‐bandgap nonfullerene acceptors with suitable energy levels and chemical structures are designed, synthesized, and employed as the third component in the donor/acceptor binary blend, which boosts the PCE of OPV to 11.6%.
Recently, a new type of active layer with a ternary system has been developed to further enhance the performance of binary system organic photovoltaics (OPV). In the ternary OPV, almost all active layers are formed by simple ternary blend in solution, which eventually leads to the disordered bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure after a spin‐coating process. There are two main restrictions in this disordered BHJ structure to obtain higher performance OPV. One is the isolated second donor or acceptor domains. The other is the invalid metal–semiconductor contact. Herein, the concept and design of donor/acceptor/acceptor ternary OPV with more controlled structure (C‐ternary) is reported. The C‐ternary OPV is fabricated by a sequential solution process, in which the second acceptor and donor/acceptor binary blend are sequentially spin‐coated. After the device optimization, the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of all OPV with C‐ternary are enhanced by 14–21% relative to those with the simple ternary blend; the best PCEs are 10.7 and 11.0% for fullerene‐based and fullerene‐free solar cells, respectively. Moreover, the averaged PCE value of 10.4% for fullerene‐free solar cell measured in this study is in great agreement with the certified one of 10.32% obtained from Newport Corporation.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10049400
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Materials
- Volume:
- 30
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 0935-9648
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract A new and highly efficient cathode interlayer material for organic photovoltaics (OPVs) was produced by integrating C60fullerene monomers into ionene polymers. The power of these novel “C60‐ionenes” for interface modification enables the use of numerous high work‐function metals (e.g., silver, copper, and gold) as the cathode in efficient OPV devices. C60‐ionene boosted power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of solar cells, fabricated with silver cathodes, from 2.79 % to 10.51 % for devices with a fullerene acceptor in the active layer, and from 3.89 % to 11.04 % for devices with a non‐fullerene acceptor in the active layer, demonstrating the versatility of this interfacial layer. The introduction of fullerene moieties dramatically improved the conductivity of ionene polymers, affording devices with high efficiency by reducing charge accumulation at the cathode/active layer interface. The power of C60‐ionene to improve electron injection and extraction between metal electrodes and organic semiconductors highlights its promise to overcome energy barriers at the hard‐soft materials interface to the benefit of organic electronics.
