Bridging the thermodynamics and kinetics of temperature-induced morphology evolution in polymer/fullerene organic solar cell bulk heterojunction

Levitsky, Artem; Schneider, Sebastian; Rabkin, Eugen; Toney, Michael F.; Frey, Gitti L.

doi:10.1039/d0mh01805h

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…At Region III, the accelerated diffusive displacement rate causes micrometer‐sized polymer and fullerene aggregation. [ 122 ] Here, we want to clarify that the temperature‐dependent aggregation discussed is universal to most systems, including fullerene acceptors, [ 124 ] polymer donors, [ 126 ] and NFAs [ 127 ] too. Therefore, most binary BHJs easily fall into the trap of spinodal decomposition and form oversized phases, if not processed carefully.…”

Section: Global Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unraveling the Mystery of Ternary Organic Solar Cells: A Review on the Influence of Third Component on Structure–Morphology–Performance Relationships

Tan

Wong

2021

Solar RRL

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The addition of a third component to a binary bulk heterojunction configuration in organic solar cells is called ternary organic solar cells (TOSCs), which is trending as a solar cell configuration that strikes balance between tandem and binary bulk heterojunction organic solar cells by increasing spectral absorption without laborious processing methods. Apart from increasing the spectral range, the third component is also able to tune the morphology and electronic properties for enhanced performance. Existing reviews on TOSCs thus far mainly focus on reporting related research progresses and their respective performances. Instead, a thorough review on understanding the influence of the third component in terms of morphology and electronic properties via a computational chemistry perspective (structure–morphology–performance) is presented here. This bottom‐up approach reviews the influence of the third component originating from intermolecular interactions to crystallization and phase properties, and finally to electronic properties such as charge transfer and energy transfer. Herein, new theoretical insights opening up potential research opportunities to propel organic solar cells to one day surpass 20% power conversion efficiency are revealed.

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Section: Global Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was well explained in the literature. [122][123][124] Essentially, heating the BHJ surpassing T g will succumb the blend into a competition between phase separation and crystallization. Phase separation is dominated by spinodal decomposition, which is the spontaneous demixing of an unstable homogenous phase.…”

Section: Prevention Of Overaggregated Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the Mystery of Ternary Organic Solar Cells: A Review on the Influence of Third Component on Structure–Morphology–Performance Relationships

Tan

Wong

2021

Solar RRL

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“…In contrast to the IDIC blend films, there is little change in the PTQ10 n : m /Y6 blend GIWAXS 2D patterns upon TA treatment in terms of additional scattering peaks (Figure b). Using an in situ annealing GIWAXS technique, , the evolution of the (100) peak related to the PTQ10 n : m CP and Y6 can be separately tracked (Figure S46). Therefore, when determining the rDoC from integrated normalized pole figures, we could separate the difference in crystallinity between Y6 and PTQ10 n : m upon TA treatment (Figure S45).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into the Local Bulk-Heterojunction Packing Interactions and Donor–Acceptor Energy Level Offsets in Scalable Photovoltaic Polymers

Jones

Schneider

et al. 2022

Chem. Mater.

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An energy level offset in organic solar cells (OSCs) is necessary for efficient charge generation and separation. To date, there are several polymer donor−non-fullerene acceptor (NFA) bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) systems with a negligible ionization energy (IE) level offset achieving high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 15%. Although these donor−acceptor pairs perform well in solar cells, there is little understanding on why some systems can achieve this phenomenon, and therefore, many of these BHJs are discovered through a trial-and-error process. Here, we investigate how OSC efficiencies can be modulated by adjusting the IE level offset in a series of PTQ10 n:m random terpolymer donors by means of solar cell performance (open circuit voltage (V OC ) and short-circuit current (J SC )) when paired with Y6 and IDIC acceptors. PTQ10's IE level was adjusted through a copolymerization of thiophene (n), bithiophene (m), and quinoxaline monomer units in different ratios, whereby 10% bithiophene leads to a 0.05 eV decrease in the polymer's IE. The incorporation of 10% bithiophene (PTQ10 90:10) led to a 1.3 ± 0.5 mA/cm 2 increase in J SC when paired with Y6 (PCE = 13.8 ± 0.4%) in conjunction with an incremental decrease in V OC and fill factor (FF) when compared to PTQ10 (PCE = 14.7 ± 0.1%). Increasing the bithiophene content to 20% (PTQ10 80:20) exacerbated the decrease in V OC and FF further without the benefit of increased J SC . The drop in FF with increasing bithiophene incorporation correlated with increasing edge-on orientation in the neat polymer and polymer:Y6 BHJ blend films, shown by grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements. High-field solidstate (ss)NMR spectroscopy analysis of single component PTQ10, Y6, and PTQ10:Y6 BHJ blends provides a complementary insight into how a low IE level offset system (PTQ10:Y6) imparts high performance. By resolving inter-and intramolecular packing interactions at sub-nanometer distances, ssNMR results offer key insights into the changes in local structures and conformations in the vicinity of the alkoxy PTQ10 side chains and in the Y6 end group in BHJ blends when compared to the neat compounds. Despite the changes in local structures, the BHJ morphology maintains pure D-A domains and preserves the microstructure, which correlates with the high-performing solar cells. A synergic combination of chemical design, multiscale morphology characterization, and device physics shown in this study provides an excellent strategy to investigate the BHJ and its role in organic solar cell performance.

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“…24 Recently, we harnessed the VPI of DEZ and water for direct imaging of several fullerenebased OSCs blends. 21,25,26 Exposing the BHJs to VPI leads to ZnO deposition in the free volume of the polymer-rich domains, while the fullerene domains are too dense to allow in situ ZnO deposition. The selective staining and film stabilization allowed us to perform 3D tomography using a transmission electron microscope, and provide, for the first time, 3D imaging of the complex morphology of a viable fullerene-based OSC films.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into the chemistry of vapor phase infiltration for imaging non-fullerene acceptors

2022

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Bridging the thermodynamics and kinetics of temperature-induced morphology evolution in polymer/fullerene organic solar cell bulk heterojunction

Abstract: The performance of organic solar cells (OSC) critically depends on the morphology of the active layer. After deposition, the active layer is in a metastable state and prone to changes...

Cited by 27 publications

References 76 publications

Unraveling the Mystery of Ternary Organic Solar Cells: A Review on the Influence of Third Component on Structure–Morphology–Performance Relationships

Unraveling the Mystery of Ternary Organic Solar Cells: A Review on the Influence of Third Component on Structure–Morphology–Performance Relationships

Insights into the Local Bulk-Heterojunction Packing Interactions and Donor–Acceptor Energy Level Offsets in Scalable Photovoltaic Polymers

Insights into the chemistry of vapor phase infiltration for imaging non-fullerene acceptors

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