A regioregular conjugated polymer for high performance thick-film organic solar cells without processing additive. Issue 21 (16th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhong, Hongliang; Ye, Long; Chen, Jung-Yao; Jo, Sae Byeok; Chueh, Chu-Chen; Carpenter, Joshua H.; Ade, Harald; Jen, Alex K.-Y.
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 5:Issue 21(2017)
• Page Start: 10517
• Page End: 10525
• Publication Date: 2017-05-16
• Subjects: Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/c7ta02391j
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7488

Abstract

Abstract : Regioregular PTB7-Th with pre-designated repeat units achieves over 10% efficiency in thick-film solar cells without the assistance of a solvent additive. Abstract : To address the challenges of reliability and facile processability of a benchmark polymer PTB7-Th, one of the most prevailing donor materials utilized in organic solar cells, we have systematically investigated the correlations among chemical structure, processing, morphology and device performance. Our study reveals that the regioregularity of PTB7-Th plays a crucial role in polymer properties as well as the fabrication process of devices. The regioregular polymer entirely consisting of favourable repeat units is capable of realizing high power conversion efficiency (>10%) in organic solar cells without using any solvent additive and tedious processing treatments. More importantly, the device efficiency based on this regioregular polymer is insensitive over a broad range of film thickness (from 100 nm to >400 nm). This will be very advantageous for manufacturing highly efficient and stable polymer solar cells by high throughput fabrication processes.