15.34% efficiency all-small-molecule organic solar cells with an improved fill factor enabled by a fullerene additive

Hu D, Yang Q, Chen H, Wobben F, Le Corre VM, Singh R, Liu T, Ma R, Tang H, Koster LJA, Duan T, Yan H, Kan Z, Xiao Z, Lu S (2020)

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Energy and Environmental Science Royal Society of Chemistry

Publisher: ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

Book Volume: 13

Pages Range: 2134-2141

Journal Issue: 7

DOI: 10.1039/d0ee00714e

Abstract

Solution processed organic solar cells (OSCs) composed of all small molecules (ASM) are promising for production on an industrial scale owing to the properties of small molecules, such as well-defined chemical structures, high purity of materials, and outstanding repeatability from batch to batch synthesis. Remarkably, ASM OSCs with power conversion efficiency (PCE) beyond 13% were achieved by structure improvement of the electron donor and choosingY6as the electron acceptor. However, the fill factor (FF) is an obstacle that limits the further improvement of the PCE for these ASM OSCs. Herein, we focus on the FF improvement of recently reported ASM OSCs withBTR-Cl:Y6as the active layer by miscibility-induced active layer morphology optimization. The incorporation of fullerene derivatives, which have good miscibility with bothBTR-ClandY6, results in reduced bimolecular recombination and thus improved FF. In particular, whenca.5 wt% ofPC(71)BMwas added in the active layer, a FF of 77.11% was achieved without sacrificing the open circuit voltage (V-OC) and the short circuit current density (J(SC)), leading to a record PCE of 15.34% (certified at 14.7%) for ASM OSCs. We found that the optimized device showed comparable charge extraction, longer charge carrier lifetime, and slower bimolecular recombination rate compared with those of the control devices (w/o fullerene). Our results demonstrate that the miscibility driven regulation of active layer morphology by incorporation of a fullerene derivative delicately optimizes the active layer microstructures and improves the device performance, which brings vibrancy to OSC research.

Authors with CRIS profile

Vincent Marc Le Corre Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET)

Involved external institutions

University of Groningen / Rijksuniversiteit Groningen NL Netherlands (NL)

How to cite

APA:

Hu, D., Yang, Q., Chen, H., Wobben, F., Le Corre, V.M., Singh, R.,... Lu, S. (2020). 15.34% efficiency all-small-molecule organic solar cells with an improved fill factor enabled by a fullerene additive. Energy and Environmental Science, 13(7), 2134-2141. https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d0ee00714e

MLA:

Hu, Dingqin, et al. "15.34% efficiency all-small-molecule organic solar cells with an improved fill factor enabled by a fullerene additive." Energy and Environmental Science 13.7 (2020): 2134-2141.

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