TY - JOUR
T1 - Engineering the morphology
T2 - Via processing additives in multiple all-polymer solar cells for improved performance
AU - Yuan, Jianyu
AU - Xu, Yalong
AU - Shi, Guozheng
AU - Ling, Xufeng
AU - Ying, Lei
AU - Huang, Fei
AU - Lee, Tack Ho
AU - Woo, Han Young
AU - Kim, Jin Young
AU - Cao, Yong
AU - Ma, Wanli
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (BK20170337), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51761145013 and 61674111) and “111” projects. The authors thank the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University. We also acknowledge the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - In this contribution, we report the working mechanisms of several processing additives for controlling the morphology of four all-polymer systems. The optical and electrical properties, photovoltaic performance, morphology and the dynamic process of film formation of these all-polymer systems were thoroughly examined. We revealed that the effect of additives is largely dependent on the aggregation behaviors of the polymers used. Here, the polymer acceptors with large planar structures have stronger inter-chain interactions, which make their morphology more susceptible to additive treatment compared to the donors. 1,8-Di(R)octane (R = Cl, Br, and I) additives can be applied to multiple all-polymer devices with improved efficiency due to their general capability to increase the crystallinity and extend the effective time during the film formation. Interestingly, DBrO outperforms the widely used DIO, obtaining a highest efficiency of 8.23% for the PTzBI/P(NDI2OD-T2) based all-polymer solar cells, indicating finer morphology control by a subtle change of the additive structure. In contrast, the addition of chloronaphthalene (CN) can alleviate the inter-chain interaction of polymers to prevent the formation of oversized domains, which make it especially efficient for systems using strongly aggregated polymers like P(NDI2OD-T2). Our results provide insight into processing additives and suggest guidelines to rationally select additives for nonfullerene solar cells.
AB - In this contribution, we report the working mechanisms of several processing additives for controlling the morphology of four all-polymer systems. The optical and electrical properties, photovoltaic performance, morphology and the dynamic process of film formation of these all-polymer systems were thoroughly examined. We revealed that the effect of additives is largely dependent on the aggregation behaviors of the polymers used. Here, the polymer acceptors with large planar structures have stronger inter-chain interactions, which make their morphology more susceptible to additive treatment compared to the donors. 1,8-Di(R)octane (R = Cl, Br, and I) additives can be applied to multiple all-polymer devices with improved efficiency due to their general capability to increase the crystallinity and extend the effective time during the film formation. Interestingly, DBrO outperforms the widely used DIO, obtaining a highest efficiency of 8.23% for the PTzBI/P(NDI2OD-T2) based all-polymer solar cells, indicating finer morphology control by a subtle change of the additive structure. In contrast, the addition of chloronaphthalene (CN) can alleviate the inter-chain interaction of polymers to prevent the formation of oversized domains, which make it especially efficient for systems using strongly aggregated polymers like P(NDI2OD-T2). Our results provide insight into processing additives and suggest guidelines to rationally select additives for nonfullerene solar cells.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048221210&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1039/c8ta03343a
DO - 10.1039/c8ta03343a
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85048221210
VL - 6
SP - 10421
EP - 10432
JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
SN - 2050-7488
IS - 22
ER -