Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells
We demonstrate highly efficient and stable solar cells using a ternary approach, wherein two non-fullerene acceptors are combined with both a scalable and affordable donor polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene), and a high efficiency, low band-gap polymer in a single-layer bulk-heterojunction devices
We have recently shown that solar cells using an alternative small molecule non-fullerene acceptor, IDTBR, when mixed with P3HT, can achieve power conversion efficiencies of up to 6.4%
The combination of stability, cost and performance for P3HT:NFA devices, make them a compelling choice for commercialization of organic photovoltaics compared to devices using fullerenes, for which the high costs and energy involved are prohibitive for large scale production
Through optimizing the acceptor phase loading ratio in a D:A1:A2 blend, and molecular packing with respect to the binary blend, we demonstrate a concurrent improvement in Jsc, Voc and FF resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 7.7± 0.1% % for P3HT cells
Characterization of neat materials and blends Previously, we have shown that a NFA containing an indacenodithiophene core flanked with benzothiadiazole and rhodanine groups, named IDTBR, can deliver 6.4% PCE in a solar cell device when combined with P3HT, which is the highest P3HT:NFA performance reported
Further addition of IDFBR resulted in Voc values of 0.82 V, but a decrease in Jsc, which is mainly attributed to the reduced absorption at long wavelengths from IDTBR in the ternary blend
The high efficiency PCE10:PC70BM device performance dropped to 20% of its initial value. These results suggest that the addition of IDFBR to P3HT:IDTBR blend improves photovoltaic performance and has a synergistic benefit to both storage lifetime and photo-stability, which demonstrates a significant advantage for practical applications in comparison to low band gap:fullerene solar cells
All ternary devices were processed using chlorobenzene without further processing or solvent additives and active layers were pre-annealed in inert atmosphere at 130 °C for 10 min, which is required for P3HT crystallization. Current density-voltage characteristics were measured in both forward and backward directions at room temperature, with 20 mA/s scan speed in air, using a Xenon lamp at AM1.5 solar illumination calibrated to a silicon reference cell with a Keithley 2400 source meter, correcting for spectral mismatch
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