Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T14:44:09.003Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ternary blend all-polymer solar cells: enhanced performance and evidence of parallel-like bulk heterojunction mechanism

Part of: Polymers and Soft Matter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2015

Ye-Jin Hwang ,
Brett A. E. Courtright  and
Samson A. Jenekhe
Ye-Jin Hwang
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1750, USA
Brett A. E. Courtright
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1750, USA
Samson A. Jenekhe*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1750, USA
*
Address all correspondence to Samson A. Jenekhe at jenekhe@u.washington.edu
Get access

Abstract

All-polymer solar cells composed of binary blends of donor poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexanoyl)-thieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2–6-diyl)] (PBDTTT-CT ), and acceptor polymers naphthalene diimide-selenophene copolymer (PNDIS-HD) and perylene diimide-selenophene copolymer (PPDIS) had power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 1.3 and 2.1%, respectively. Ternary blend solar cells composed of [PBDTTT-CT][PNDIS-HD]1−x[PPDIS]x at 75 wt% PPDIS had a PCE of 3.2%, which is about a 50%–140% enhancement compared with the binary blend devices. Equality of the ternary blend short-circuit current to the sum of those of the binary blend devices, among other results, provided evidence of a parallel-like bulk heterojunction mechanism in the ternary blend solar cells. These results provide the first example of enhanced performance in ternary blend all-polymer solar cells.

Type
Polymers/Soft Matter Research Letters
Information
MRS Communications , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 229 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Earmme, T., Hwang, Y.-J., Subramaniyan, S., and Jenekhe, S.A.: All-polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells with 4.8% efficiency achieved by solution processing from a co-solvent. Adv. Mater. 26, 6080 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Mu, C., Liu, P., Ma, W., Jiang, K., Zhao, J., Zhang, K., Chen, Z., Wei, Z., Yi, Y., Wang, J., Yang, S., Huang, F., Facchetti, A., Ade, H., and Yan, H.: High-efficiency all-polymer solar cells based on a pair of crystalline low-bandgap polymers. Adv. Mater. 26, 7224 (2014).Google Scholar
3.Mori, D., Benten, H., Okada, I., Ohkita, H., and Ito, S.: Highly efficient charge-carrier generation and collection in polymer/polymer blend solar cells with a power conversion efficiency of 5.7%. Energy Environ. Sci. 7, 2939 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Lee, C., Kang, H., Lee, W., Kim, T., Kim, K.-H., Woo, H.Y., Wang, C., and Kim, B.J.: High-performance all-polymer solar cells via side-chain engineering of the polymer acceptor: the importance of the polymer packing structure and the nanoscale blend morphology. Adv. Mater. 27, 2466 (2015).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Hwang, Y.-J., Earmme, T., Courtright, B.A.E., Eberle, F.N., and Jenekhe, S.A.: n-type semiconducting naphthalene diimide-perylene diimide copolymers: controlling crystallinity, blend morphology, and compatibility toward high-performance all-polymer solar cells. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 4424 (2015).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.He, Z., Zhong, C., Su, S., Xu, M., Wu, H., and Cao, Y.: Enhanced power-conversion efficiency in polymer solar cells using an inverted device structure. Nat. Photonics 6, 591 (2012).Google Scholar
7.Li, G., Zhu, R., and Yang, Y.: Polymer solar cells. Nat. Photonics 6, 153 (2012).Google Scholar
8.Liao, S.-H., Jhuo, H.-J., Yeh, P.-N., Cheng, Y.-S., Li, Y.-L., Lee, Y.-H., Sharma, S., and Chen, S.-A.: Single junction inverted polymer solar cell reaching power conversion efficiency 10.31% by employing dual-doped zinc oxide nano-film as cathode interlayer. Sci. Rep. 4, 6813 (2014).Google Scholar
9.Savoie, B.M., Dunaisky, S., Marks, T.J., and Ratner, M.A.: The scope and limitations of ternary blend organic photovoltaics. Adv. Energy Mater. 5, 1400891 (2015).Google Scholar
10.Ameri, T., Khoram, P., Min, J., and Brabec, C.J.: Organic ternary solar cells: a review. Adv. Mater. 25, 4245 (2013).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Yang, L., Zhou, H., Price, S.C., and You, W.: Parallel-like bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 5432 (2012).Google Scholar
12.Khlyabich, P.P., Burkhart, B., and Thompson, B.C.: Efficient ternary blend bulk heterojunction solar cells with tunable open-circuit voltage. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 14534 (2011).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13.Huang, J.-S., Goh, T., Li, X., Sfeir, M.Y., Bielinski, E.A., Tomasulo, S., Lee, M.L., Hazari, N., and Taylor, A.D.: Polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells employing Förster resonance energy transfer. Nat. Photonics 7, 479 (2013).Google Scholar
14.Lu, L., Xu, T., Chen, W., Landry, E.S., and Yu, L.: Ternary blend polymer solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency. Nat. Photonics 8, 716 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Huo, L., Zhang, S., Guo, X., Xu, F., Li, Y., and Hou, J.: Replacing alkoxy groups with alkythienyl groups: a feasible approach to improve the properties of photovoltaic polymers. Angew. Chem. 123, 9871 (2011).Google Scholar
16.Earmme, T., Hwang, Y.-J., Murari, N.M., Subramaniyan, S., and Jenekhe, S.A.: All-polymer solar cells with 3.3% efficiency based on naphthalene diimide-selenophene copolymer acceptor. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 14960 (2013).Google Scholar
17.Rand, B.P., Burk, D.P., and Forrest, S.R.: Offset energies at organic semiconductor heterojunctions and their influence on the open-circuit voltage of thin-film solar cells. Phys. Rev. B 75, 115327 (2007).Google Scholar
18.Ren, G., Schlenker, C.W., Ahmed, E., Subramaniyan, S., Olthof, S., Kahn, A., Ginger, D.S., and Jenekhe, S.A.: Photoinduced hole transfer becomes suppressed with diminished driving force in polymer-fullerene solar cells while electron transfer remains active. Adv. Funct. Mater. 23, 1238 (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.Heeger, A.J.: 25th anniversary article: bulk heterojunction solar cells: understanding the mechanism of operation. Adv. Mater. 26, 10 (2014).Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Image

Hwang supplementary material

Figure S1

Download Hwang supplementary material(Image)
Image 1.1 MB
Supplementary material: Image

Hwang supplementary material

Figure S2

Download Hwang supplementary material(Image)
Image 1.3 MB
Supplementary material: Image

Hwang supplementary material

Figure S3

Download Hwang supplementary material(Image)
Image 3.3 MB
Supplementary material: Image

Hwang supplementary material

Figure S4

Download Hwang supplementary material(Image)
Image 2.3 MB
Supplementary material: File

Hwang supplementary material

Hwang supplementary material 1

Download Hwang supplementary material(File)
File 1.3 MB