Issue 7, 2024

A nonfullerene acceptor as a solid additive realizing a record efficiency of 17.74% in quasi-layered all-polymer solar cells

Abstract

Quasi-layered all-polymer solar cells (QLA-PSCs) were fabricated based on wide bandgap polymer PM6 as a donor and narrow bandgap polymer PY-IT as an acceptor. A nonfullerene acceptor, L8-BO, is deliberately selected as a solid additive due to its similar chemical structure to the segment of polymer acceptor PY-IT. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the QLA-PSCs is increased from 16.14% to 17.74% by incorporating 2 wt% L8-BO into the PY-IT layer, benefiting from the synergistically increased short circuit current density (24.45 mA cm−2vs. 23.41 mA cm−2) and fill factor (76.38% vs. 72.60%). The contribution of L8-BO as a solid additive on the performance improvement of the QLA-PSCs can be summarized as follows: (i) it induces more ordered molecular orientation of PY-IT confirmed from GIWAXS; (ii) it enlarges the exciton diffusion length in the PY-IT layer and facilitates efficient hole transfer from PY-IT to PM6 as demonstrated by transient absorption; (iii) it increases the exciton dissociation interface as evidenced by the contact angle and photoluminescence of PM6/PY-IT without or with L8-BO. It should be highlighted that the 2000 h storage stability of the QLA-PSCs can be significantly improved, with PCE retention increasing from 85.1% to 90.2% of the initial value upon incorporating L8-BO as a solid additive. The effect of the universality of the nonfullerene acceptor as a solid additive on the performance improvement of QLA-PSCs can also be confirmed by the boosted PCE to 16.71% or 16.79% with Y6 or BO-4F as a solid additive. This work shows that a small molecular nonfullerene acceptor may induce a polymer acceptor molecular arrangement to further improve the performance of QLA-PSCs.

Graphical abstract: A nonfullerene acceptor as a solid additive realizing a record efficiency of 17.74% in quasi-layered all-polymer solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Nov 2023
Accepted
09 Jan 2024
First published
09 Jan 2024

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024,12, 4077-4085

A nonfullerene acceptor as a solid additive realizing a record efficiency of 17.74% in quasi-layered all-polymer solar cells

W. Xu, M. Zhang, Z. Liu, H. Tian, W. Zhang, S. Sun, S. Y. Jeong, F. Zhang, X. Li, Q. Sun, X. Hao, H. Y. Woo, X. Ma and F. Zhang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024, 12, 4077 DOI: 10.1039/D3TA07228B

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