Synergistic impact of solvent as well as strong additives on morphology optimization of organic solar cells

• Managing the morphology of photoactive layers towards nanoscale bi-continuous donor/acceptor interpenetrating networks is a vital problem to construct high-performance organic solar cells (OSCs).

As a result of the distinctive buildings between donor and also acceptor materials, casting an active layer from a solitary solvent remedy usually results in an either not enough or extreme stage splitting up that reduces the gadget performance.

In contrast to the fullerene acceptors with closed-cage structures, non-fullerene acceptors which are widely utilized today possess anisotropic p-p interactions similar with p-type organic semiconductor donors.

While the approaches used for morphology optimization of non-fullerene-based blends empirically comply with the therapies originally established in fullerene-based systems, they are unable to fulfill the varied molecular frameworks as well as features of the non-fullerene acceptors.

Extremely just recently, Prof. Chaohua Cui and colleagues in Soochow University reported a new morphology regulating method by making use of the synergistic effect of double additives of 4,4'-dimethoxyoctafluorobiphenyl (PFO) and 1-chloronaphthalene (CN).

The solid crystallinity of OFP offers the possibility to restrict the more than gathering of non-fullerene acceptors with high crystallinity throughout the movie cast procedure, leaving the well-established stage separation with nanoscale bicontinuous donor/acceptor interpenetrating network after OFP volatilization by subsequent thermal annealing therapy.

In particular, the PTQ10: m-BTP-C6Ph-based gadget refined by the dual additives of CN as well as PFO revealed an exceptional power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.74% connected with a high fill element (FF) of 0.783, whereas the control tool processed by CN produced a reasonably reduced PCE of 16.45% with an FF of 0.749.

The results show the encouraging application of dual additives of OFP and CN in enhancing the morphology of OSCs toward better photovoltaic efficiencies