TY - JOUR
T1 - Triad-type, multi-functional compatibilizers for enhancing efficiency, stability and mechanical robustness of polymer solar cells
AU - Kim, Geon U.
AU - Lee, Young Woong
AU - Ma, Boo Soo
AU - Kim, Jinseck
AU - Park, Jin Su
AU - Lee, Seungjin
AU - Nguyen, Thanh Luan
AU - Song, Myoung
AU - Kim, Taek Soo
AU - Woo, Han Young
AU - Kim, Bumjoon J.
N1 - Funding Information:
G.-U. K. and Y. W. L. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported by the Korean Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (20163010012470 and 20183010014470). H. Y. W. gratefully acknowledges the nan-cial support by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (NRF-2016M1A2A2940911, 2019R1A6A1A11044070). We acknowledge additional support for this work from the Research Projects of the KAIST-KUSTAR. This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231, and we thank Dr C. Wang for the assistance in the RSoXS measurements.
PY - 2020/7/21
Y1 - 2020/7/21
N2 - The operation stability of polymer solar cells (PSCs) is one of the most important prerequisites for their practical use. In this work, we report a new acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) triad-type small molecule, 5TRh-PCBM, as a compatibilizer for enhancing the thermal stabilities and mechanical properties of efficient PSCs while increasing their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). This multifunctional 5TRh-PCBM molecule, consisting of an oligothiophene segment as the central core and fullerene derivatives as the end groups, is designed to enable strong interactions between the 5TRh-core with various types of efficient polymer donors containing thiophene or fused-thiophene units, while the end fullerene groups preferentially interact with PCBM acceptors. To examine the effectiveness of this molecular compatibilizer, PSCs with different donors (PTB7-Th, PBDB-T, and P3HT) have been fabricated and tested, with addition of various amounts of 5TRh-PCBM. The addition of 5 and 10 wt% of 5TRh-PCBM significantly enhances the thermal and mechanical stabilities of all tested PSCs. Importantly, unlike typical compatibilizers, the addition of 5TRh-PCBM can increase the PCEs of the PSCs due to its light harvesting capability. In particular, the PCE of PTB7-Th:PCBM-based PSCs is increased from 9.37% to 10.09% with the 5 wt% addition of 5TRh-PCBM. Our comprehensive investigations have revealed the effects of 5TRh-PCBM on the optical, morphological, photovoltaic, and mechanical properties of molecularly engineered PSCs.
AB - The operation stability of polymer solar cells (PSCs) is one of the most important prerequisites for their practical use. In this work, we report a new acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) triad-type small molecule, 5TRh-PCBM, as a compatibilizer for enhancing the thermal stabilities and mechanical properties of efficient PSCs while increasing their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). This multifunctional 5TRh-PCBM molecule, consisting of an oligothiophene segment as the central core and fullerene derivatives as the end groups, is designed to enable strong interactions between the 5TRh-core with various types of efficient polymer donors containing thiophene or fused-thiophene units, while the end fullerene groups preferentially interact with PCBM acceptors. To examine the effectiveness of this molecular compatibilizer, PSCs with different donors (PTB7-Th, PBDB-T, and P3HT) have been fabricated and tested, with addition of various amounts of 5TRh-PCBM. The addition of 5 and 10 wt% of 5TRh-PCBM significantly enhances the thermal and mechanical stabilities of all tested PSCs. Importantly, unlike typical compatibilizers, the addition of 5TRh-PCBM can increase the PCEs of the PSCs due to its light harvesting capability. In particular, the PCE of PTB7-Th:PCBM-based PSCs is increased from 9.37% to 10.09% with the 5 wt% addition of 5TRh-PCBM. Our comprehensive investigations have revealed the effects of 5TRh-PCBM on the optical, morphological, photovoltaic, and mechanical properties of molecularly engineered PSCs.
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U2 - 10.1039/d0ta03924a
DO - 10.1039/d0ta03924a
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089519612
VL - 8
SP - 13522
EP - 13531
JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
SN - 2050-7488
IS - 27
ER -