Title
Twisted A-D-A Type Acceptors with Thermally-Activated Delayed Crystallization Behavior for Efficient Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells
Date Issued
01 May 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Wu Y.
Schneider S.
Yuan Y.
Young R.M.
Francese T.
Mansoor I.F.
Dudenas P.J.
Lei Y.
DeLongchamp D.M.
Lipke M.C.
Galli G.
Wasielewski M.R.
Asbury J.B.
Toney M.F.
Bao Z.
Publisher(s)
John Wiley and Sons Inc
Abstract
Molecular aggregation and crystallization during film coating play a crucial role in the realization of high-performing organic photovoltaics. Strong intermolecular interactions and high solid-state crystallinity are beneficial for charge transport. However, fast crystallization during thin-film drying often limits the formation of the finely phase-separated morphology required for efficient charge generation. Herein, the authors show that twisted acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) type compounds, containing an indacenodithiophene (IDT) electron-rich core and two naphthalenediimide (NDI) electron-poor units, leads to formation of mostly amorphous phases in the as-cast film, which can be readily converted into more crystalline domains by means of thermal annealing. This design strategy solves the aforementioned conundrum, leading to an optimal morphology in terms of reduced donor/acceptor domain-separation sizes (ca. 13 nm) and increased packing order. Solar cells based on these acceptors with a PBDB-T polymer donor show a power conversion efficiency over 10% and stable morphology, which results from the combined properties of desirable excited-state dynamics, high charge mobility, and optimal aggregation/crystallization characteristics. These results demonstrate that the twisted A-D-A motif featuring thermally-induced crystallization behavior is indeed a promising alternative design approach toward more morphologically robust materials for efficient organic photovoltaics.
Volume
12
Issue
18
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería eléctrica, Ingeniería electrónica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85126454772
Source
Advanced Energy Materials
ISSN of the container
16146832
Sponsor(s)
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Office of Naval Research (Program manager P. Armistead, award N00014-19-1-2453). Use of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-1542152. Work at Northwestern was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Award DE-FG02-99ER14999 (M.R.W.). P.J.D. thanks the NIST-NRC postdoctoral fellowship program for support. Part of this work used the SST-1 beamline (Beamline 7-ID-1) at National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract DESC0012704.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus