AI Chat Paper
Note: Please note that the following content is generated by AMiner AI. SciOpen does not take any responsibility related to this content.
{{lang === 'zh_CN' ? '文章概述' : 'Summary'}}
{{lang === 'en_US' ? '中' : 'Eng'}}
Chat more with AI
Powered by AMiner. Clicking this button will take you away from SciOpen.
Home Nano Research Article
Article Link
Cite
EndNote(RIS) BibTeX
Collect
Submit Manuscript
Show Outline
Outline
Show full outline
Hide outline
Outline
Show full outline
Hide outline
Research Article

Exploring ternary organic photovoltaics for the reduced nonradiative recombination and improved efficiency over 17.23% with a simple large-bandgap small molecular third component

Huanran Feng1( ), Yvjie Dai1, Lihao Guo1, Di Wang2, Hao Dong2, Zhihui Liu1, Lu Zhang1, Yvjin Zhu1, Chen Su1, Yongsheng Chen3, Weiwei Wu1( )
School of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Interdisciplinary Research Center of Smart Sensors, Xidian University, Shaanxi 710126, China
Intelligent Perception Research Institute, Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou 311100, China
State Key Laboratory and Institute of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Show Author Information

Graphical Abstract

A simple small molecule BR1 with high crystallinity is used as the third component in the construction of ternary organic photovoltaic cells for further improving the photovoltaic performance of PM6:Y6 systems through regulating molecular packing and aggregation and enhancing electroluminescence emission. Based on more efficient charge transport, suppressed recombination, and reduced energy loss (Eloss), the PM6:Y6:BR1 based ternary cells contribute a much higher power conversion efficiency of 17.23% with all simultaneously improvedphotovoltaic parameters.

Abstract

Ternary strategy is one of the most effective methods to further boost the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). In terms of high-efficiency PM6:Y6 binary systems, there is still room to further reduce energy loss (Eloss) through regulating molecular packing and aggregation by introducing a third component in the construction of ternary OPVs. Here we introduce a simple molecule BR1 based on an acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) structure with a wide bandgap and high crystallinity into PM6:Y6-based OPVs. It is proved that BR1 can be selectively dispersed into the donor phase in the PM6:Y6 and reduce disorder in the ternary blends, thus resulting in lower Eloss,non-rad and Eloss. Furthermore, the mechanism study reveals well-develop phase separation morphology and complemented absorption spectra in the ternary blends, leading to higher charge mobility, suppressed recombination, which concurrently contributes to the significantly improved PCE of 17.23% for the ternary system compared with the binary ones (16.21%). This work provides an effective approach to improve the performance of the PM6:Y6-based OPVs by adopting a ternary strategy with a simple molecule as the third component.

Keywords

organic photovoltaicternary bulk heterojunctionnonradiative recombinationsimple small moleculephase separation

Electronic Supplementary Material

Download File(s)
12274_2021_3945_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (618.8 KB)

References

1

Meng, L. X.; Zhang, Y. M.; Wan, X. J.; Li, C. X.; Zhang, X.; Wang, Y. B.; Ke, X.; Xiao, Z.; Ding, L. M.; Xia, R. X. et al. Organic and solution-processed tandem solar cells with 17.3% efficiency. Science 2018, 361, 1094–1098.
Crossref Google Scholar
2

Yu, G.; Gao, J.; Hummelen, J. C.; Wudl, F.; Heeger, A. J. Polymer photovoltaic cells: Enhanced efficiencies via a network of internal donor-acceptor heterojunctions. Science 1995, 270, 1789–1791.
Crossref Google Scholar
3

Kan, B.; Ershad, F.; Rao, Z. Y.; Yu, C. J. Flexible organic solar cells for biomedical devices. Nano Res. 2021, 14, 2891–2903.
Crossref Google Scholar
4

Cheng, P.; Li, G.; Zhan, X. W.; Yang, Y. Next-generation organic photovoltaics based on non-fullerene acceptors. Nat. Photonics 2018, 12, 131–142.
Crossref Google Scholar
5

Zhang, Q.; Wan, X. J.; Xing, F.; Huang, L.; Long, G. K.; Yi, N. B.; Ni, W.; Liu, Z. B.; Tian, J. G.; Chen, Y. S. Solution-processable graphene mesh transparent electrodes for organic solar cells. Nano Res. 2013, 6, 478–484.
Crossref Google Scholar
6

Wang, J. Y.; Zhan, X. W. Fused-ring electron acceptors for photovoltaics and beyond. Acc. Chem. Res. 2021, 54, 132–143.
Crossref Google Scholar
7

Wadsworth, A.; Moser, M.; Marks, A.; Little, M. S.; Gasparini, N.; Brabec, C. J.; Baran, D.; McCulloch, I. Critical review of the molecular design progress in non-fullerene electron acceptors towards commercially viable organic solar cells. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2019, 48, 1596–1625.
Crossref Google Scholar
8

Yang, Y.; Feng, E. M.; Li, H. Y.; Shen, Z. C.; Liu, W. R.; Guo, J. B.; Luo, Q.; Zhang, J. D.; Lu, G. H.; Ma, C. Q. et al. Layer-by-layer slot-die coated high-efficiency organic solar cells processed using twin boiling point solvents under ambient condition. Nano Res. 2021, 14, 4236–4242.
Crossref Google Scholar
9

Mishra, A. Material perceptions and advances in molecular heteroacenes for organic solar cells. Energy Environ. Sci. 2020, 13, 4738–4793.
Crossref Google Scholar
10

Zhang, D. Y.; Fan, P.; Shi, J. Y.; Zheng, Y. F.; Zhong, J.; Yu, J. S. Control of vertical phase separation in high performance non-fullerene organic solar cell by introducing oscillating stratification preprocessing. Nano Res. 2021, 14, 1319–1325.
Crossref Google Scholar
11

Guo, Q.; Guo, Q.; Geng, Y. F.; Tang, A. L.; Zhang, M. J.; Du, M. Z.; Sun, X. N.; Zhou, E. J. Recent advances in PM6: Y6-based organic solar cells. Mater. Chem. Front. 2021, 5, 3257–3280.
Crossref Google Scholar
12

Yuan, J.; Zhang, Y. Q.; Zhou, L. Y.; Zhang, G. C.; Yip, H. L.; Lau, T. K.; Lu, X. H.; Zhu, C.; Peng, H. J.; Johnson, P. A. et al. Single-junction organic solar cell with over 15% efficiency using fused-ring acceptor with electron-deficient core. Joule 2019, 3, 1140–1151.
Crossref Google Scholar
13

Li, S. X.; Li, C. Z.; Shi, M. M.; Chen, H. Z. New phase for organic solar cell research: Emergence of Y-series electron acceptors and their perspectives. ACS Energy Lett. 2020, 5, 1554–1567.
Crossref Google Scholar
14

Bi, P. Q.; Zhang, S. Q.; Chen, Z. C.; Xu, Y.; Cui, Y.; Zhang, T.; Ren, J. Z.; Qin, J. Z.; Hong, L.; Hao, X. T. et al. Reduced non-radiative charge recombination enables organic photovoltaic cell approaching 19% efficiency. Joule 2021, 5, 2408–2419.
Crossref Google Scholar
15

Li, C.; Zhou, J. D.; Song, J. L.; Xu, J. Q.; Zhang, H. T.; Zhang, X. N.; Guo, J.; Zhu, L.; Wei, D. H.; Han, G. C. et al. Non-fullerene acceptors with branched side chains and improved molecular packing to exceed 18% efficiency in organic solar cells. Nat. Energy 2021, 6, 605–613.
Crossref Google Scholar
16

Liu, Q. S.; Jiang, Y. F.; Jin, K.; Qin, J. Q.; Xu, J. G.; Li, W. T.; Xiong, J.; Liu, J. F.; Xiao, Z.; Sun, K. et al. 18% Efficiency organic solar cells. Sci. Bull. 2020, 65, 272–275.
Crossref Google Scholar
17

Liu, F.; Zhou, L.; Liu, W. R.; Zhou, Z. C.; Yue, Q. H.; Zheng, W. Y.; Sun, R.; Liu, W. Y.; Xu, S. J.; Fan, H. J. et al. Organic solar cells with 18% efficiency enabled by an alloy acceptor: A two-in-one strategy. Adv. Mater. 2021, 33, 2100830.
Crossref Google Scholar
18

Ma, X. L.; Gao, W.; Yu, J. S.; An, Q. S.; Zhang, M.; Hu, Z. H.; Wang, J. X.; Tang, W. H.; Yang, C. L.; Zhang, F. J. Ternary nonfullerene polymer solar cells with efficiency > 13.7% by integrating the advantages of the materials and two binary cells. Energy Environ. Sci. 2018, 11, 2134–2141.
Crossref Google Scholar
19

Zhang, H.; Yao, H. F.; Hou, J. X.; Zhu, J.; Zhang, J. Q.; Li, W. N.; Yu, R. N.; Gao, B. W.; Zhang, S. Q.; Hou, J. H. Over 14% efficiency in organic solar cells enabled by chlorinated nonfullerene small-molecule acceptors. Adv. Mater. 2018, 30, 1800613.
Crossref Google Scholar
20

Zhou, D.; You, W.; Xu, H. T.; Tong, Y. F.; Hu, B.; Xie, Y.; Chen, L. Recent progress in ternary organic solar cells based on solution-processed non-fullerene acceptors. J. Mater. Chem. A 2020, 8, 23096–23122.
Crossref Google Scholar
21

Yang, W. T.; Ye, L.; Yao, F. F.; Jin, C. H.; Ade, H.; Chen, H. Z. Black phosphorus nanoflakes as morphology modifier for efficient fullerene-free organic solar cells with high fill-factor and better morphological stability. Nano Res. 2019, 12, 777–783.
Crossref Google Scholar
22

Zhang, S. H.; Shah, M. N.; Liu, F.; Zhang, Z. Q.; Hu, Q.; Russell, T. P.; Shi, M. M.; Li, C. Z.; Chen, H. Z. Efficient and 1, 8-diiodooctane-free ternary organic solar cells fabricated via nanoscale morphology tuning using small-molecule dye additive. Nano Res. 2017, 10, 3765–3774.
Crossref Google Scholar
23

Hou, J. H.; Inganäs, O.; Friend, R. H.; Gao, F. Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors. Nat. Mater. 2018, 17, 119–128.
Crossref Google Scholar
24

Qian, D. P.; Zheng, Z. L.; Yao, H. F.; Tress, W.; Hopper, T. R.; Chen, S. L.; Li, S. S.; Liu, J.; Chen, S. S.; Zhang, J. B. et al. Design rules for minimizing voltage losses in high-efficiency organic solar cells. Nat. Mater. 2018, 17, 703–709.
Crossref Google Scholar
25

Liu, J.; Chen, S. S.; Qian, D. P.; Gautam, B.; Yang, G. F.; Zhao, J. B.; Bergqvist, J.; Zhang, F. L.; Ma, W.; Ade, H. et al. Fast charge separation in a non-fullerene organic solar cell with a small driving force. Nat. Energy 2016, 1, 16089.
Crossref Google Scholar
26

Vandewal, K.; Albrecht, S.; Hoke, E. T.; Graham, K. R.; Widmer, J.; Douglas, J. D.; Schubert, M.; Mateker, W. R.; Bloking, J. T.; Burkhard, G. F. et al. Efficient charge generation by relaxed charge-transfer states at organic interfaces. Nat. Mater. 2014, 13, 63–68.
Crossref Google Scholar
27

Vandewal, K.; Tvingstedt, K.; Gadisa, A.; Inganäs, O.; Manca, J. V. On the origin of the open-circuit voltage of polymer-fullerene solar cells. Nat. Mater. 2009, 8, 904–909.
Crossref Google Scholar
28

Benduhn, J.; Tvingstedt, K.; Piersimoni, F.; Ullbrich, S.; Fan, Y. L.; Tropiano, M.; McGarry, K. A.; Zeika, O.; Riede, M. K.; Douglas, C. J. et al. Intrinsic non-radiative voltage losses in fullerene-based organic solar cells. Nat. Energy 2017, 2, 17053.
Crossref Google Scholar
29

Vandewal, K.; Tvingstedt, K.; Gadisa, A.; Inganäs, O.; Manca, J. V. Relating the open-circuit voltage to interface molecular properties of donor: Acceptor bulk heterojunction solar cells. Phys. Rev. B 2010, 81, 125204.
Crossref Google Scholar
30

Liu, S. H.; Jiang, R. B.; You, P.; Zhu, X. Z.; Wang, J. F.; Yan, F. Au/Ag core-shell nanocuboids for high-efficiency organic solar cells with broadband plasmonic enhancement. Energy Environ. Sci. 2016, 9, 898–905.
Crossref Google Scholar
31

Qin, Y. P.; Zhang, S. Q.; Xu, Y.; Ye, L.; Wu, Y.; Kong, J. Y.; Xu, B. W.; Yao, H. F.; Ade, H.; Hou, J. H. Reduced nonradiative energy loss caused by aggregation of nonfullerene acceptor in organic solar cells. Adv. Energy Mater. 2019, 9, 1901823.
Crossref Google Scholar
32

Xie, Y. P.; Li, T. F.; Guo, J.; Bi, P. Q.; Xue, X. N.; Ryu, H. S.; Cai, Y. H.; Min, J.; Huo, L. J.; Hao, X. T. et al. Ternary organic solar cells with small nonradiative recombination loss. ACS Energy Lett. 2019, 4, 1196–1203.
Crossref Google Scholar
33

Xu, X. P.; Feng, K.; Lee, Y. W.; Woo, H. Y.; Zhang, G. J.; Peng, Q. Subtle polymer donor and molecular acceptor design enable efficient polymer solar cells with a very small energy loss. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, 30, 1907570.
Crossref Google Scholar
34

Ma, R. J.; Liu, T.; Luo, Z. H.; Gao, K.; Chen, K.; Zhang, G. Y.; Gao, W.; Xiao, Y. Q.; Lau, T. K.; Fan, Q. P. et al. Adding a third component with reduced miscibility and higher LUMO level enables efficient ternary organic solar cells. ACS Energy Lett. 2020, 5, 2711–2720.
Crossref Google Scholar
35

Chen, S. H.; Yan, T. T.; Fanady, B.; Song, W.; Ge, J. F.; Wei, Q.; Peng, R. X.; Chen, G. H.; Zou, Y. P.; Ge, Z. Y. High efficiency ternary organic solar cells enabled by compatible dual-donor strategy with planar conjugated structures. Sci. China Chem. 2020, 63, 917–923.
Crossref Google Scholar
36

Ma, Y. L.; Zhou, X. B.; Cai, D. D.; Tu, Q. S.; Ma, W.; Zheng, Q. D. A minimal benzo[c][1, 2, 5]thiadiazole-based electron acceptor as a third component material for ternary polymer solar cells with efficiencies exceeding 16.0%.Mater. Horiz. 2020, 7, 117–124.
Crossref Google Scholar
37

Wang, H. T.; Yang, L. Q.; Lin, P. C.; Chueh, C. C.; Liu, X.; Qu, S. Y.; Guang, S.; Yu, J. S.; Tang, W. H. A simple dithieno[3, 2-b: 2′, 3′-d]pyrrol-rhodanine molecular third component enables over 16. 7% efficiency and stable organic solar cells. Small 2021, 17, 2007746.
Crossref Google Scholar
38

Xu, L. Y.; Tao, W. X.; Liu, H.; Ning, J. H.; Huang, M. H.; Zhao, B.; Lu, X. H.; Tan, S. T. Achieving 17.38% efficiency of ternary organic solar cells enabled by a large-bandgap donor with noncovalent conformational locking. J. Mater. Chem. A 2021, 9, 11734–11740.
Crossref Google Scholar
39

Lee, S. M.; Kumari, T.; Lee, B.; Cho, Y.; Lee, J.; Oh, J.; Jeong, M.; Jung, S.; Yang, C. Horizontal-, vertical-, and cross-conjugated small molecules: Conjugated pathway-performance correlations along operation mechanisms in ternary non-fullerene organic solar cells. Small 2020, 16, 1905309.
Crossref Google Scholar
40

Ma, X. L.; Wang, J.; Gao, J. H.; Hu, Z. H.; Xu, C. Y.; Zhang, X. L.; Zhang, F. J. Achieving 17.4% efficiency of ternary organic photovoltaics with two well-compatible nonfullerene acceptors for minimizing energy loss. Adv. Energy Mater. 2020, 10, 2001404.
Google Scholar
41

Cui, Y.; Yao, H. F.; Zhang, J. Q.; Zhang, T.; Wang, Y. M.; Hong, L.; Xian, K. H.; Xu, B. W.; Zhang, S. Q.; Peng, J. et al. Over 16% efficiency organic photovoltaic cells enabled by a chlorinated acceptor with increased open-circuit voltages. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 2515.
Crossref Google Scholar
42

Liu, S.; Yuan, J.; Deng, W. Y.; Luo, M.; Xie, Y.; Liang, Q. B.; Zou, Y. P.; He, Z. C.; Wu, H. B.; Cao, Y. High-efficiency organic solar cells with low non-radiative recombination loss and low energetic disorder. Nat. Photonics 2020, 14, 300–305.
Google Scholar
43

Ma, Q.; Jia, Z. R.; Meng, L.; Zhang, J. Y.; Zhang, H. T.; Huang, W. C.; Yuan, J.; Gao, F.; Wan, Y.; Zhang, Z. J. et al. Promoting charge separation resulting in ternary organic solar cells efficiency over 17.5%. Nano Energy 2020, 78, 105272.
Crossref Google Scholar
44

Blom, P. W. M.; Mihailetchi, V. D.; Koster, L. J. A.; Markov, D. E. Device physics of polymer: Fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells. Adv. Mater. 2007, 19, 1551–1566.
Crossref Google Scholar
45

Honda, S.; Ohkita, H.; Benten, H.; Ito, S. Selective dye loading at the heterojunction in polymer/fullerene solar cells. Adv. Energy Mater. 2011, 1, 588–598.
Crossref Google Scholar
46

Cheng, T. W.; Keskkula, H.; Paul, D. R. Property and morphology relationships for ternary blends of polycarbonate, brittle polymers and an impact modifier. Polymer 1992, 33, 1606–1619.
Crossref Google Scholar
47

Li, D.; Neumann, A. W. A reformulation of the equation of state for interfacial tensions. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 1990, 137, 304–307.
Crossref Google Scholar
48

Nilsson, S.; Bernasik, A.; Budkowski, A.; Moons, E. Morphology and phase segregation of spin-casted films of polyfluorene/PCBM blends. Macromolecules 2007, 40, 8291–8301.
Crossref Google Scholar
49

Clint, J. H. Adhesion and components of solid surface energies. Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 2001, 6, 28–33.
Crossref Google Scholar
50

Makkonen, L. Young’s equation revisited. J. Phys. :Condens. Matter 2016, 28, 135001.
Crossref Google Scholar
51

Adil, M. A.; Zhang, J. Q.; Wang, Y. H.; Yu, J. D.; Yang, C.; Lu, G. H.; Wei, Z. X. Regulating the phase separation of ternary organic solar cells via 3D architectured AIE molecules. Nano Energy 2020, 68, 104271.
Crossref Google Scholar
52

Ye, L.; Hu, H. W.; Ghasemi, M.; Wang, T. H.; Collins, B. A.; Kim, J. H.; Jiang, K.; Carpenter, J. H.; Li, H.; Li, Z. K. et al. Quantitative relations between interaction parameter, miscibility and function in organic solar cells. Nat. Mater. 2018, 17, 253–260.
Crossref Google Scholar
53

Fan, H. Y.; Yang, H.; Wu, Y.; Yildiz, O.; Zhu, X. M.; Marszalek, T.; Blom, P. W. M.; Cui, C. H.; Li, Y. F. Anthracene-assisted morphology optimization in photoactive layer for high-efficiency polymer solar cells. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 31, 2103944.
Crossref Google Scholar
54

Zhang, X. Q.; Liu, M. Y.; Yang, B.; Zhang, X. Y.; Chi, Z. G.; Liu, S. W.; Xu, J. R.; Wei, Y. Cross-linkable aggregation induced emission dye based red fluorescent organic nanoparticles and their cell imaging applications. Polym. Chem. 2013, 4, 5060–5064.
Crossref Google Scholar
Nano Research
Volume 15 Issue 4,
April 2022
Pages 3222-3229
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-021-3945-3
Cite this article:
Feng H, Dai Y, Guo L, et al. Exploring ternary organic photovoltaics for the reduced nonradiative recombination and improved efficiency over 17.23% with a simple large-bandgap small molecular third component. Nano Research, 2022, 15(4): 3222-3229. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3945-3
Topics:
Organic solar cells

837

Views

20

Crossref

19

Web of Science

19

Scopus

1

CSCD

Altmetrics
Received: 27 September 2021
Revised: 16 October 2021
Accepted: 21 October 2021
Published: 04 December 2021
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
Return