Eco-Compatible Solvent-Processed Organic Photovoltaic Cells with Over 16% Efficiency

Ling Hong; Huifeng Yao; Ziang Wu; Yong Cui; Tao Zhang; Ye Xu; Runnan Yu; Qing Liao; Bowei Gao; Kaihu Xian; Han Young Woo; Ziyi Ge; Jianhui Hou

doi:10.1002/adma.201903441

Eco-Compatible Solvent-Processed Organic Photovoltaic Cells with Over 16% Efficiency

Ling Hong, Huifeng Yao, Ziang Wu, Yong Cui, Tao Zhang, Ye Xu, Runnan Yu, Qing Liao, Bowei Gao, Kaihu Xian, Han Young Woo, Ziyi Ge, Jianhui Hou

Department of Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

455 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recent advances in nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) have enabled the rapid increase in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. However, this progress is achieved using highly toxic solvents, which are not suitable for the scalable large-area processing method, becoming one of the biggest factors hindering the mass production and commercial applications of OPVs. Therefore, it is of great importance to get good eco-compatible processability when designing efficient OPV materials. Here, to achieve high efficiency and good processability of the NFAs in eco-compatible solvents, the flexible alkyl chains of the highly efficient NFA BTP-4F-8 (also known as Y6) are modified and BTP-4F-12 is synthesized. Combining with the polymer donor PBDB-TF, BTP-4F-12 shows the best PCE of 16.4%. Importantly, when the polymer donor PBDB-TF is replaced by T1 with better solubility, various eco-compatible solvents can be applied to fabricate OPV cells. Finally, over 14% efficiency is obtained with tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the processing solvent for 1.07 cm² OPV cells by the blade-coating method. These results indicate that the simple modification of the side chain can be used to tune the processability of active layer materials and thus make it more applicable for the mass production with environmentally benign solvents.

Original language	English
Article number	1903441
Journal	Advanced Materials
Volume	31
Issue number	39
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201903441
Publication status	Published - 2019 Sept 1

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
J.H. would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91633301 51673201, and 21835006), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB12030200). This work was supported by Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS-CXXM-201903). H.Y. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21805287) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. 2018043). H.Y.W. is grateful for the financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2016M1A2A2940911, 2019R1A6A1A11044070). Z.G. thanks the financial support from National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFE0106000) and Ningbo Municipal Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (2015B11002 and 2016B10005).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Keywords

blade-coating
eco-compatible solvents
nonfullerene acceptors
organic photovoltaic cells
power conversion efficiency

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Materials Science
Mechanics of Materials
Mechanical Engineering

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1002/adma.201903441

Cite this

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title = "Eco-Compatible Solvent-Processed Organic Photovoltaic Cells with Over 16% Efficiency",

abstract = "Recent advances in nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) have enabled the rapid increase in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. However, this progress is achieved using highly toxic solvents, which are not suitable for the scalable large-area processing method, becoming one of the biggest factors hindering the mass production and commercial applications of OPVs. Therefore, it is of great importance to get good eco-compatible processability when designing efficient OPV materials. Here, to achieve high efficiency and good processability of the NFAs in eco-compatible solvents, the flexible alkyl chains of the highly efficient NFA BTP-4F-8 (also known as Y6) are modified and BTP-4F-12 is synthesized. Combining with the polymer donor PBDB-TF, BTP-4F-12 shows the best PCE of 16.4%. Importantly, when the polymer donor PBDB-TF is replaced by T1 with better solubility, various eco-compatible solvents can be applied to fabricate OPV cells. Finally, over 14% efficiency is obtained with tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the processing solvent for 1.07 cm2 OPV cells by the blade-coating method. These results indicate that the simple modification of the side chain can be used to tune the processability of active layer materials and thus make it more applicable for the mass production with environmentally benign solvents.",

keywords = "blade-coating, eco-compatible solvents, nonfullerene acceptors, organic photovoltaic cells, power conversion efficiency",

author = "Ling Hong and Huifeng Yao and Ziang Wu and Yong Cui and Tao Zhang and Ye Xu and Runnan Yu and Qing Liao and Bowei Gao and Kaihu Xian and Woo, {Han Young} and Ziyi Ge and Jianhui Hou",

note = "Funding Information: J.H. would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91633301 51673201, and 21835006), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB12030200). This work was supported by Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS-CXXM-201903). H.Y. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21805287) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. 2018043). H.Y.W. is grateful for the financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2016M1A2A2940911, 2019R1A6A1A11044070). Z.G. thanks the financial support from National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFE0106000) and Ningbo Municipal Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (2015B11002 and 2016B10005). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim",

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AU - Hong, Ling

AU - Yao, Huifeng

AU - Wu, Ziang

AU - Cui, Yong

AU - Zhang, Tao

AU - Xu, Ye

AU - Yu, Runnan

AU - Liao, Qing

AU - Gao, Bowei

AU - Xian, Kaihu

AU - Woo, Han Young

AU - Ge, Ziyi

AU - Hou, Jianhui

N1 - Funding Information: J.H. would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91633301 51673201, and 21835006), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB12030200). This work was supported by Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS-CXXM-201903). H.Y. thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21805287) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. 2018043). H.Y.W. is grateful for the financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2016M1A2A2940911, 2019R1A6A1A11044070). Z.G. thanks the financial support from National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFE0106000) and Ningbo Municipal Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (2015B11002 and 2016B10005). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

PY - 2019/9/1

Y1 - 2019/9/1

N2 - Recent advances in nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) have enabled the rapid increase in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. However, this progress is achieved using highly toxic solvents, which are not suitable for the scalable large-area processing method, becoming one of the biggest factors hindering the mass production and commercial applications of OPVs. Therefore, it is of great importance to get good eco-compatible processability when designing efficient OPV materials. Here, to achieve high efficiency and good processability of the NFAs in eco-compatible solvents, the flexible alkyl chains of the highly efficient NFA BTP-4F-8 (also known as Y6) are modified and BTP-4F-12 is synthesized. Combining with the polymer donor PBDB-TF, BTP-4F-12 shows the best PCE of 16.4%. Importantly, when the polymer donor PBDB-TF is replaced by T1 with better solubility, various eco-compatible solvents can be applied to fabricate OPV cells. Finally, over 14% efficiency is obtained with tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the processing solvent for 1.07 cm2 OPV cells by the blade-coating method. These results indicate that the simple modification of the side chain can be used to tune the processability of active layer materials and thus make it more applicable for the mass production with environmentally benign solvents.

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Eco-Compatible Solvent-Processed Organic Photovoltaic Cells with Over 16% Efficiency

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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