Title
Correlation between Phase-Separated Domain Sizes of Active Layer and Photovoltaic Performances in All-Polymer Solar Cells
Date Issued
26 July 2016
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Lee C.
Li Y.
Lee W.
Lee Y.
Choi J.
Kim T.
Wang C.
Woo H.
Kim B.
Pennsylvania State University
Publisher(s)
American Chemical Society
Abstract
The control of the bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) morphology in polymer/polymer blends remains a critical hurdle for optimizing all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). The relationship between donor/acceptor phase separation, domain size, and the resulting photovoltaic characteristics of PDFQx3T and P(NDI2OD-T2)-based all-PSCs was investigated. We varied the film-processing solvents (chloroform, chlorobenzene, o-dichlorobenzene, and p-xylene), thereby manipulating the phase separation of all-polymer blends with the domain size in the range of 30-300 nm. The different volatility and solubility of the solvents strongly influenced the aggregation of the polymers and the BHJ morphology of polymer blends. Domain sizes of all-polymer blends were closely correlated with the short-circuit current density (JSC) of the devices, while the open-circuit voltage (0.80 V) and fill factor (0.60) were unaffected. All-PSCs with the smallest domain size of ∼30 nm in the active layer (using chloroform), which is commensurate with the domain size of highly efficient polymer/fullerene solar cells, had the highest JSC and power conversion efficiency of 5.11% due to large interfacial areas and efficient exciton separation. Our results suggest that the BHJ morphology was not fully optimized for most of the previous high-performance all-PSC systems, and their photovoltaic performance can be further improved by fine-engineering the film morphology, i.e., domain size, domain purity, and polymer packing structure.
Start page
5051
End page
5058
Volume
49
Issue
14
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería eléctrica, Ingeniería electrónica Nano-tecnología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84979902072
Source
Macromolecules
ISSN of the container
00249297
DOI of the container
10.1021/acs.macromol.6b01069
Source funding
Office of Naval Research
KAIST-KUSTAR
National Research Foundation of Korea
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Sponsor(s)
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation Grant ( 2 0 1 2 M 3 A 6 A 7 0 5 5 5 4 0 , 2015M1A2A2057506, and 2015R1A2A1A15055605), funded by the Korean Government. This research was supported by the Research Projects of the KAIST-KUSTAR and the CRH (Climate Change Research Hub) of KAIST. Y.L. and E.D.G. acknowledge funding from the Office of Naval Research, United States, under Contract N000141410532.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus