Wide Bandgap Perylene Diimide Derivatives as an Effective Third Component for Parallel Connected Ternary Blend Polymer Solar Cells

Abstract

Constructing a ternary blend active layer for polymer solar cells (PSCs) is a widely explored approach to achieve a high power conversion efficiency (PCE). To achieve this, multiple approaches have been explored for dual-acceptor PSCs including acceptor alloy and acceptor cascade. Parallel connection is another working mechanism of ternary blends with the advantage of large freedom in the selection of materials with largely different absorption ranges. Here, we purposely designed two propeller-like perylene diimide (PDI) derivatives, TT-PDI and TZ-PDI, with different central cores and selected one as the third component to be added into a PM6:Y6 blend. The highest PCE of 17.52% was obtained with 10% of Y6 replaced by TZ-PDI in the ternary blend. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a PDI derivative to be added into a PM6:Y6 blend with significantly increased device performance. The improved PCE was ascribed to the high photon absorption due to the wide bandgap and amorphous structure of TZ-PDI, which paved a functional parallel charge generation route without interfering with the nanostructure of the PM6:Y6 blend. This work demonstrated the parallel connected ternary blend as a viable route to construct efficient PSCs and a chemical designing strategy for a suitable third component in ternary blends.

AzaBenzannulated perylene diimide multimers as electron acceptors for organic solar cells

“…These values are comparable to some results reported in the literature for PDIs coupled with PM6. 39,40 The higher electron mobility of PM6:AzaBPDI 1 is consistent with the increased FF for this structure compared to the other PDIs, and highlights that the limited PCE of the devices is partially due to the lower mobility of photogenerated charges in the BHJ.…”

Layer‐by‐Layer Processed PM6:Y6‐Based Stable Ternary Polymer Solar Cells with Improved Efficiency over 18% by Incorporating an Asymmetric Thieno[3,2‐b]indole‐Based Acceptor

“…The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202200629. system mainly include solvent treatment, [10][11][12] additive treatment, [13][14][15][16] interface engineering, [17][18][19][20] multi-component blend strategy, [21][22][23][24][25] and so on. Among them, the ternary blend strategy is proved to be an achievable means to improve the performance of the PM6:Y6-based system (as shown in Figure 1c).…”

“…Therefore, studies on PM6:Y6‐based devices have been reported in an endless stream. The most commonly used device optimization methods in the PM6:Y6‐based system mainly include solvent treatment, [ 10–12 ] additive treatment, [ 13–16 ] interface engineering, [ 17–20 ] multi‐component blend strategy, [ 21–25 ] and so on. Among them, the ternary blend strategy is proved to be an achievable means to improve the performance of the PM6:Y6‐based system (as shown in Figure c).…”

Achieving high performance organic solar cells with a closer π–π distance in branched alkyl-chain acceptors

“…[5][6][7][8] Since the paradigm shi from the ITIC-series 9 to the Y6-series, 10 the 18% PCE of devices based on bulk-heterojunctions [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] or quasi-planar heterojunctions 8,18,19 has been surpassed by the state-of-the-art non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). 20,21 This exceptional improvement in OSC devices can be attributed to the design of the donor and acceptor materials, the proper application and understanding of molecular interactions, 8,[22][23][24][25] the charge dynamics 26,27 and the processes for the preparation of devices. At present, the main problem in the industrial production of OSCs is whether the capabilities of materials and techniques 24,[28][29][30] have been completely developed.…”