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High-performance multiple-donor bulk heterojunction solar cells

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 190–198 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Broadening the absorption bandwidth of polymer solar cells by incorporating multiple absorber donors into the bulk-heterojunction active layer is an attractive means of resolving the narrow absorption of organic semiconductors. However, this leads to a much more complicated system, and previous efforts have met with only limited success. Here, several dual-donor and multi-donor bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells based on a pool of materials with different absorption ranges and preferred molecular structures were studied. The study shows clearly that compatible polymer donors can coexist harmoniously, but the mixing of incompatible polymers can lead to severe molecular disorder and limit device performance. These results provide guidance for the general use of multiple-donor bulk heterojunctions to overcome the absorption limitation and achieve both high performance and fabrication simplicity for organic solar cells.

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Figure 1: Band structure, band position and absorption spectrum of the model materials used.
Figure 2: J–V and EQE characterization of (PDBTTT-C:PBDTT-DPP):PC70BM and (PTB7:PBDTT-SeDPP):PC70BM ternary BHJ solar cell systems.
Figure 3: Photo-CELIV measurements of (PDBTTT-C:PBDTT-DPP):PC70BM and (PTB7:PBDTT-SeDPP):PC70BM ternary BHJ solar cell systems.
Figure 4: Photo-CELIV measurements of (P3HT:PBDTT-DPP):PC70BM and (P3HT:PBDTT-SeDPP):PC70BM ternary BHJ solar cell systems.
Figure 5: GIWAXS patterns and RSoXS profiles.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Office of Naval Research (Program manager P. Armistead, award nos. N00014-11-1-0250 and N00014-14-1-0648). The authors thank W.L. Kwan, Z. Hong, J. You, R. Zhu, B. Street and S.A. Hawks for technical discussions. W.C. acknowledges financial support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (award no. KC020301). The authors also 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 Material Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Yang (Michael) Yang, Letian Dou, Wei-Hsuan Chang, Hsin-Sheng Duan, Brion Bob, Gang Li & Yang Yang

  2. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, 60439, Illinois, USA

    Wei Chen

  3. Institute for Molecular Engineering, the University of Chicago, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Wei Chen

  4. California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Yang Yang

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  1. Yang (Michael) Yang
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Contributions

Y.(M.)Y., G.L. and Y.Y. conceived and developed the ideas. Y.(M.)Y. designed the experiments and performed device fabrication, electrical characterization (CELIV, TPV and highly sensitive PSR) and data analysis. W.C. performed GIWAXS and RSoXS measurements and analysed the data. L.D. and W.-H.C. synthesized and provided the low-bandgap polymers of PBDTT-DPP and PBDTT-SeDPP. S.D. assisted with highly sensitive PSR measurements. Y.(M.)Y., G.L. and Y.Y. wrote the manuscript. B.B. and W.C. contributed to revision of the manuscript. The projects were supervised by Y.Y. and G.L.

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Correspondence to Gang Li or Yang Yang.

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Yang, Y., Chen, W., Dou, L. et al. High-performance multiple-donor bulk heterojunction solar cells. Nature Photon 9, 190–198 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.9

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