Blending Donors with Different Molecular Weights: An Efficient Strategy to Resolve the Conflict between Coherence Length and Intermixed Phase in Polymer/Nonfullerene Solar Cells
Qiuju Liang
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorZhangbo Hu
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorJianhong Yao
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorZihao Wu
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Xuechen Jiao
Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC, 3800 Australia
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Jiangang Liu
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Wei Huang
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorQiuju Liang
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorZhangbo Hu
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorJianhong Yao
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorZihao Wu
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Xuechen Jiao
Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC, 3800 Australia
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Jiangang Liu
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Wei Huang
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710129 China
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Long coherence lengths (CLs) of crystals and proper intermixed phase amount guarantee charge transport and exciton dissociate efficiently, which is crucial for organic solar cells (OSCs) to achieve high device performance. However, extending CLs usually reduces the intermixed phase, leading to an insufficient interface for exciton dissociation. Herein, a strategy using a binary polymer with different molecular weights as donor is employed, that is, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) with high (P3HT-H) and low (P3HT-L) molecular weight are blended as donor, and (5Z,5′Z)-5,5′-(((4,4,9,9-tetraoctyl-4,9-dihydro-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b′]dithiophene-2,7-diyl)bis(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole-7,4-diyl))bis(methanylylidene))bis(3-ethyl-2-thioxothiazolidin-4-one) (O-IDTBR) is used as acceptor. In kinetics, the entanglements of P3HT-H are relieved due to the higher molecular diffusivity of P3HT-L. In thermodynamics, the miscibility of P3HT-L/O-IDTBR, P3HT-H/O-IDTBR, and P3HT-L/P3HT-H blends increases in turn. Hence, P3HT forms a more ordered structure with longer CLs after adding P3HT-L, which also drives O-IDTBR dispersed in P3HT crystalline regions diffuse to the O-IDTBR crystalline regions to further self-organize. Consequently, the CLs of both P3HT and O-IDTBR are extended, while keeping the intermixed phase amount proper. The optimized microstructure boosts device performance from 7.03% to 7.80%, which is one of the highest values reported for P3HT/O-IDTBR blends. This is a novel way to solve the conflict mentioned above, which may provide guidance to finely regulating the morphology of the active layer.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
Research data are not shared.
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