Understanding, quantifying, and controlling the molecular ordering of semiconducting polymers: from novices to experts and amorphous to perfect crystals

Peng, Zhengxing; Ye, Long; Ade, Harald

doi:10.1039/d0mh00837k

Cited by 166 publications

(176 citation statements)

References 134 publications

(254 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

170

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The clear temperature‐dependent aggregation behaviors of PM6 in dilute solution offered the clear evidence of its high aggregation tendency, which may explain the moderate carrier extraction ( Figure a,b). [ 49,51 ] When introducing the guest polymer with significantly lower degrees of aggregation into the host polymer, a magical “dilution effect” was yielded with the reduced feature domain size and surface roughness, therefore more favorable morphology can be created for high‐performance CQD/polymer hybrid solar cells (Figure 6c).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Aggregation‐Suppressed Polymer Blending Strategy Enables High‐Performance Organic and Quantum Dot Hybrid Solar Cells

Liu

Qiao

Zhou

et al. 2022

Small

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Solution‐processing hybrid solar cells with organics and colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) have drawn substantial attention in the past decade. Nevertheless, hybrid solar cells based on the recently developed directly synthesized CQD inks are still unexplored. Herein, a facile polymer blending strategy is put forward to enable directly synthesized CQD/polymer hybrid solar cells with a champion efficiency of 13%, taking advantage of the conjugated polymer blends with finely optimized aggregation behaviors. The spectroscopic and electrical investigations on carrier transport and recombination indicate that polymer blends can endow fast carrier transport and less recombination over the single counterparts. Moreover, the blending strategy offers a “dilution effect” for top‐notch photovoltaic polymers with excessively strong aggregation tendency, resulting in moderate feature domain size and surface roughness, which afford fast hole transport and therefore high photovoltaic performance. The effectiveness of this strategy is successfully validated using two pairs of photovoltaic polymers. Accordingly, the relationships between polymer morphology, carrier transport, and photovoltaic performance are established to advance the progress of CQD/polymer hybrid solar cells. Such progress stresses that the utilization of aggregation‐suppressed polymer blends is a facile approach toward the fabrication of high‐efficiency organic–inorganic hybrid solar cells.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Aggregation‐Suppressed Polymer Blending Strategy Enables High‐Performance Organic and Quantum Dot Hybrid Solar Cells

Liu

Qiao

Zhou

et al. 2022

Small

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[ 50 ] In addition, the relative degree of crystallinity (rDoC) was calculated to quantitatively compare the crystallinity. [ 51 ] The pole figures of π–π stacking diffraction signals from the 2D‐GIWAXS patterns of different types of films based on PM6:Y6 blend are shown in Figure S3, Supporting Information. The obtained rDoC values of the π–π stacking were 91.3%, 93.0%, and 100% for the type I, II, and III blend films, respectively.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carrier Generation Engineering toward 18% Efficiency Organic Solar Cells by Controlling Film Microstructure

Zhang

Ding

et al. 2022

Advanced Energy Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The single bulk‐heterojunction active layer based on non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs) has dominated the power conversional efficiencies above 18% in state‐of‐the‐art organic solar cells (OSCs). However, a deep understanding of the relationship between charge carrier process and film microstructure remains unclear for emerging NFA OSCs. Herein, with the superstar PM6:Y6 blend as a model, the charge generation process in active layers is successfully manipulated by designing three different film microstructures, and they are correlated with the final photovoltaic performance in OSC devices. The amount of intermediate intra‐moiety excited states from the nanoscale Y6 aggregates can be effectively enhanced by controlling the phase separation domains and film crystallinity in the bicontinuous PM6:Y6 networks. This robustly improves the hole transfer, and thus promotes charge generation. As a result, the optimal films show superior device performance, that is, the high efficiencies of 16.53% and 17.98% for PM6:Y6‐ and D18:Y6‐based single junction OSCs, respectively. The results presented here give a rational guide for optimizing the charge carrier process through controlling morphological microstructures toward high‐performance NFA OSCs.

show abstract

“…The number of stacking layers ( N ) was characterized by the ratio of the coherence length to the stacking distance for a certain diffraction peak as: N = L c / d . The values obtained are summarized in Table S1 (see Supporting Information).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electron Transport in Thin Films of Polymer and Small-Molecule Acceptors Visualized by Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, spatial variations in electron transport in thin films of perylene diimide (PDI)- and naphthalene diimide (NDI)-based acceptors and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) were characterized by conductive atomic force microscopy. Electron flow images at the nanometer scale revealed that electron transport was spatially inhomogeneous in the PDI- and NDI-based polymer acceptor films, with the formation of good conducting regions with sizes of several tens of nanometers to 200 nm. In contrast, it was relatively uniform in the PDI-based small-molecule acceptor and PCBM films. The local electron currents flowing through the good conducting region of the NDI-based polymer film were higher in magnitude than those flowing in the PCBM film as a consequence of the local ordering of the polymer chains. This suggests that the electron mobility can be further improved via morphological optimizations. Conversely, electron transport was inherently inhibited in the PDI-based polymer and small-molecule acceptor films because of a loose interchain (intermolecular) π–π stacking because of the twisted intrachain (intramolecular) structures. Nanoscale observation of the local electron currents provides insights into the electron transport-related performance limitations of the nonfullerene acceptor filmsa feature that cannot be estimated via macroscopic current–voltage measurements.

show abstract

Understanding, quantifying, and controlling the molecular ordering of semiconducting polymers: from novices to experts and amorphous to perfect crystals

Abstract: Molecular packing and texture of semiconducting polymers are often critical to the performance of devices using these materials. Although frameworks exist to quantify the ordering, interpretations are often just qualitative,...

Cited by 166 publications

References 134 publications

An Aggregation‐Suppressed Polymer Blending Strategy Enables High‐Performance Organic and Quantum Dot Hybrid Solar Cells

An Aggregation‐Suppressed Polymer Blending Strategy Enables High‐Performance Organic and Quantum Dot Hybrid Solar Cells

Carrier Generation Engineering toward 18% Efficiency Organic Solar Cells by Controlling Film Microstructure

Electron Transport in Thin Films of Polymer and Small-Molecule Acceptors Visualized by Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About