Binary Solvent Additives Treatment Boosts the Efficiency of PTB7:PCBM Polymer Solar Cells to Over 9.5%. Issue 4 (19th February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zheng, Yifan; Wang, Gang; Huang, Di; Kong, Jaemin; Goh, TengHooi; Huang, Wei; Yu, Junsheng; Taylor, André D.
• Is Part Of: Solar RRL. Volume 2:Issue 4(2018)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2018-02-19
• Subjects: binary solvent additives -- polymer solar cells -- DPE -- DIO -- PTB7; Solar energy -- Periodicals; Photovoltaic power generation -- Periodicals; Solar energy -- Research -- Periodicals; Photovoltaic power generation -- Research -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 333.7923
• DOI: 10.1002/solr.201700144
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2367-198X

Abstract

Abstract : In this work, a 9.5% of power conversion efficiency (PCE) is obtained in the thieno [3, 4‐b] thiophene/benzodithiophene (PTB7): (6, 6)‐phenyl‐C70 ‐butyric acid methyl ester (PC70 BM) based polymer solar cell (PSC) by using a novel binary solvent additive of diphenyl ether (DPE): 1, 8‐diiodoctane (DIO). We find that this binary solvent additive approach increases the PTB7 donor crystallinity using DPE and enhances the PC70 BM dispersion using DIO. This amended aggregation results in a better donor/acceptor phase separation. We show that the improved crystallization and face‐on orientation preference of PTB7 contributes to higher light absorption and charge transport efficiency in the active layer. Moreover, a better D/A phase separation provides more efficient charge extraction and suppresses the charge recombination, leading to an improved FF >70%. Abstract : Binary solvent additives treatment boosts the efficiency of PTB7:PCBM polymer solar cells to over 9.5% . A novel binary solvent additive combination of DPE:DIO is demonstrated, which combines the influence of DIO on the PC70BM dispersion together with the DPE on the PTB7 crystallization. As a result, a high efficiency polymer solar cell is obtained with a significant PCE enhancement from 6.96 to 9.25%, and high FF of over 70%.