Reducing non-radiative voltage losses in organic solar cells using molecular encapsulation. (19th January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sharma, Anirudh; Sharma, Lisa; Bertrandie, Jules; Villalva, Diego R.; Gao, Yajun; De Castro, Catherine S. P.; Troughton, Joel; Gorenflot, Julien; Laquai, Frederic; Bronstein, Hugo; Baran, Derya
• Is Part Of: Materials chemistry frontiers. Volume 7:Number 4(2023)
• Page Start: 735
• Page End: 744
• Publication Date: 2023-01-19
• Subjects: Materials science -- Periodicals; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1039/d2qm01044e
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2052-1529

Abstract

Abstract : Molecular encapsulation is a promising strategy to reduce non-radiative losses and enhance stability of organic solar cells, via reduced aggregation in the polymer phase. Encapsulated polymers demonstrated enhanced electroluminescence and better donor–acceptor intermixing. Abstract : Non-radiative voltage loss is one of the significant bottlenecks limiting the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). This work presents a material design approach for conjugated polymers isolating the polymer chains with molecular encapsulation, enabling better control over the donor–acceptor spacing. Bulk-heterojunction OSCs based on encapsulated polymers as electron donors show a remarkable increase of ∼50 mV in the V oc . Significant improvement in the V oc is attributed to reduced non-radiative voltage losses as evidenced by enhanced electroluminescence as a result of suppressed intermolecular aggregation and an increase in structural disorder. Importantly, molecular encapsulation resulted in notable improvement in the operational stability of OSCs with no burn-in loss in V oc, presenting a promising strategy to simultaneously enhance the performance and operational stability of OSCs.