The role of chemical structure in indacenodithienothiophene-alt-benzothiadiazole copolymers for high performance organic solar cells with improved photo-stability through minimization of burn-in loss

Chochos CL, Leclerc N, Gasparini N, Zimmerman N, Tatsi E, Katsouras A, Moschovas D, Serpetzoglou E, Konidakis I, Fall S, Leveque P, Heiser T, Spanos M, Gregoriou VG, Stratakis E, Ameri T, Brabec C, Avgeropoulos A (2017)

Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Journal of Materials Chemistry A Royal Society of Chemistry

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

Book Volume: 5

Pages Range: 25064-25076

Journal Issue: 47

DOI: 10.1039/c7ta09224e

Abstract

It is of upmost importance to gain an in-depth understanding of the role of the polymer chemical structure in the performance of the corresponding organic solar cell (OSC) and its degradation behavior, which is currently insufficiently explored. Achieving these correlations will set new design rules towards further optimization of polymer chemical structures for OSCs exhibiting high performances and long stability. In this study, our efforts have been focused on identifying how the nature of aryl substituents and the number of fluorine atoms anchored in the backbone of indacenodithieno[3,2-b]thiophene (IDTT) based polymers influence their optoelectronic properties, the OSC performances and their degradation mechanisms. The most important outcome of this study is the demonstration that standard initial burn-in loss is primary attributed to microstructure instabilities. Furthermore, the initial burn-in loss could be substantially reduced through the rational design of the polymeric semiconductor's chemical structure, leading to improved lifetimes and low (20%) initial power conversion efficiency loss. In particular, we identify the beneficial effect of the presence of the two fluorine atoms on the benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (BTD), as compared to the non-fluorinated and mono-fluorinated analogues, in decreasing the burn-in by reducing the microstructure instabilities regardless of the aryl substituent that is present in the polymer backbone. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Authors with CRIS profile

Nicola Gasparini Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) (i-MEET) Tayebeh Ameri Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) (i-MEET) Christoph Brabec Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) (i-MEET)

Involved external institutions

University of Ioannina / Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων GR Greece (GR) Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) / Ίδρυμα Τεχνολογίας και Έρευνας GR Greece (GR) Université de Strasbourg (UDS) FR France (FR) Advent Technologies SA GR Greece (GR)

How to cite

APA:

Chochos, C.L., Leclerc, N., Gasparini, N., Zimmerman, N., Tatsi, E., Katsouras, A.,... Avgeropoulos, A. (2017). The role of chemical structure in indacenodithienothiophene-alt-benzothiadiazole copolymers for high performance organic solar cells with improved photo-stability through minimization of burn-in loss. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5(47), 25064-25076. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ta09224e

MLA:

Chochos, Christos L., et al. "The role of chemical structure in indacenodithienothiophene-alt-benzothiadiazole copolymers for high performance organic solar cells with improved photo-stability through minimization of burn-in loss." Journal of Materials Chemistry A 5.47 (2017): 25064-25076.

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