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Research Article | Open Access

Polymer donors with hydrophilic side-chains enabling efficient and thermally-stable polymer solar cells by non-halogenated solvent processing

Soodeok Seo1,§, Jun-Young Park2,§, Jin Su Park1,§, Seungjin Lee3, Do-Yeong Choi2, Yun-Hi Kim4(), Bumjoon J. Kim1()
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Department of Materials Engineering and Convergence Technology and ERI, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Republic of Korea
Advanced Energy Materials Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), Daejeon 34114, Republic of Korea
Department of Chemistry and ERI, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Republic of Korea

§ Soodeok Seo and Jun-Young Park and Jin Su Park contributed equally to this work.

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New polymer donor (2EG) featuring hydrophilic oligoethylene glycol (OEG) sidechain is designed to achieve a high-performance and thermally-stable polymer solar cells (PSCs) by non-halogenated solvent process.

Abstract

Polymer solar cells (PSCs) with high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and environment-friendly fabrication are the main requirements enabling their production in industrial scale. While the use of non-halogenated solvent processing is inevitable for the PSC fabrication, it significantly reduces the processability of polymer donors (PDS) and small-molecule acceptors (SMAs). This often results in unoptimized blend morphology and limits the device performance. To address this issue, hydrophilic oligoethylene glycol (OEG) side-chains are introduced into a PD (2EG) to enhance the molecular compatibility between the PD and L8-BO SMA. The 2EG PD induces higher crystallinity and alleviates phase separation with the SMA compared to the reference PD (PM7) with hydrocarbon side-chains. Consequently, the 2EG-based PSCs exhibit a higher PCE (15.8%) than the PM7-based PSCs (PCE = 14.4%) in the ortho-xylene based processing. Importantly, benefitted from the reduced phase separation and increased crystallinity of 2EG PDS, the 2EG-based PSCs show enhanced thermal stability (84% of initial PCE after 120 h heating) compared to that of the PM7-based PSCs (60% of initial PCE after 120 h heating). This study demonstrates the potential of OEG side-chain-incorporated materials in developing efficient, stable, and eco-friendly PSCs.

Keywords

polymer solar cellpolymer donorOEG side-chainnon-halogenated solvent processside-chain engineering

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Nano Research Energy
Volume 3 Issue 1,
March 2024
DOI: 10.26599/NRE.2023.9120088
Cite this article:
Seo S, Park J-Y, Park JS, et al. Polymer donors with hydrophilic side-chains enabling efficient and thermally-stable polymer solar cells by non-halogenated solvent processing. Nano Research Energy, 2024, 3: e9120088. https://doi.org/10.26599/NRE.2023.9120088
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Basic properties of the materials used in this study

MaterialMna(kg·mol–1)Ðaλmaxsol b(nm)Egopt c(eV)EHOMO d(eV)ELUMO e(eV)
aDetermined by the size exclusion chromatography (SEC) using the 80 oC heated ortho-dichlorobenzene as an eluent and calibrated by the polystyrene standard; bMeasured from the solution dissolved in the o-xylene; cCalculated from the UV-vis film spectra using the Egopt = 1240/λ; dDetermined from the cyclovoltammetry spectra; eCalculated using the ELUMO=EHOMO+Egopt.
PM781.92.916051.87−5.67−3.80
PM70.5-2EG0.571.62.386131.86−5.64−3.78
2EG66.32.016191.85−5.58−3.73
L8-BO--8011.37−5.75−4.38

Photovoltaic performances of PSCs featuring PD:L8-BO blends in o-xylene processing

PDVoc a(V)Jsc a(mA·cm–2)Calcd. Jsc b(mA·cm–2)FF aPCEavg a (PCEmax) (%)
aAverage values were obtained from at least 10 different PSCs. bCalculated Jsc value was obtained from the EQE spectra.
PM70.91 ± 0.0022.40 ± 0.2222.250.69 ± 0.0114.05 ± 0.17 (14.35)
PM70.5-2EG0.50.88 ± 0.0023.51 ± 0.3223.800.70 ± 0.0114.64 ± 0.11 (14.80)
2EG0.86 ± 0.0124.60 ± 0.2024.800.73 ± 0.0215.63 ± 0.14 (15.80)

Aggregation, crystalline, and mobility parameters of neat PD films; the crystalline parameters were calculated from OOP (010) peaks in the GIXS linecut profile

PDλmaxfilm a(nm)I0-0/I0-1 a)d010 b(Å)Lc(010) b(Å)μh c(10–4 cm2·V–1·s–1)
aMeasured from the UV–vis spectra of spin-coated film from the solution dissolved in o-xylene; bEstimated from GIXS linecut profiles using Scherrer equation; cMeasured using SCLC method.
PM76031.023.8515.13.2
PM70.5-2EG0.56151.063.8215.54.6
2EG6211.053.7618.76.8

Morphological properties of PD:L8-BO blends

Systemd010(Å) aLc(010)(Å) aDomain size(nm) b√TSI btsat at λmax of PD (s) ctsat at λmax of L8-BO (s) c
aEstimated from the GIXS profiles of PD:L8-BO blend along the OOP direction. bEstimated from the RSoXS profiles of PD:L8-BO blend. cEstimated from the in situ UV‒vis spectras of PD:L8-BO blend.
PM7:L8-BO3.7610.81061.0015.315.4
PM70.5-2EG0.5:L8-BO3.7317.3‒‒13.514.1
2EG:L8-BO3.7121.7230.6112.312.7