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Ternary blend polymer solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 716–722 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The use ternary organic components is currently being pursued to enhance the power conversion efficiency of bulk heterojunction solar cells by expanding the spectral range of light absorption. Here, we report a ternary blend polymer solar cell containing two donor polymers, poly-3-oxothieno[3,4-d]isothiazole-1,1-dioxide/benzodithiophene (PID2), polythieno[3,4-b]-thiophene/benzodithiophene (PTB7) and [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) as an acceptor. The resulting ternary solar cell delivered a power conversion efficiency of 8.22% with a short-circuit current density Jsc of 16.8 mA cm–2, an open-circuit voltage Voc of 0.72 V and a fill factor of 68.7%. In addition to extended light absorption, we show that Jsc is improved through improved charge separation and transport and decreased charge recombination, resulting from the cascade energy levels and optimized device morphology of the ternary system. This work indicates that ternary blend solar cells have the potential to surpass high-performance binary polymer solar cells after further device engineering and optimization.

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Figure 1: Material properties and device structure.
Figure 2: Photovoltaic performance of the ternary devices.
Figure 3: Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterization of the ternary devices.
Figure 4: 2D GIWAXS patterns of ternary films on PEDOT:PSS-modified Si substrates.
Figure 5

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF, grant no. NSF CHE-1229089, DMR-1263006), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and NSF MRSEC programme at the University of Chicago, the DOE via the ANSER Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (award no. DE-SC0001059). W.C. acknowledges financial support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (award no. KC020301). The authors thank J. Strzalka and C. Wang for assistance with GISAXS and RSoXS measurements. Use of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357). The ALS at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy (contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, 929 E 57th Street, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Luyao Lu, Tao Xu & Luping Yu

  2. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 Cass Avenue, Lemont, 60439, Illinois, USA

    Wei Chen & Erik S. Landry

  3. Institute for Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, 5747 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Wei Chen & Erik S. Landry

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  1. Luyao Lu
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Contributions

L.Y. conceptualized the project. L.L. designed and performed the device experiments and data analysis. T.X. performed materials synthesis. L.L. characterized film morphology by TEM and AFM. W.C. and E.L. performed X-ray scattering experiments and analyses. All authors discussed the results and L.Y., L.L. and W.C. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Luping Yu.

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Lu, L., Xu, T., Chen, W. et al. Ternary blend polymer solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency. Nature Photon 8, 716–722 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.172

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