A New Quinoxaline and Isoindigo Based Polymer as Donor Material for Solar Cells: Role of Ecofriendly Processing Solvents on the Device Efficiency and Stability
Journal article, 2017

A new semiconducting polymer based on two different electron deficient (quinoxaline and isoindigo) and electron rich (benzodithiophene) moieties is synthesized, characterized and used as donor material for photovoltaic devices. Blade-coated bulk heterojunction solar cells are fabricated in air by using chlorinated (o-dichlorobenzene) and nonchlorinated (o-xylene) solvents for the deposition of the active layer. The use of o-xylene allows a similar to 10% improvement of the device efficiency in comparison to the analogous system processed from o-dichlorobenzene. In addition, the evolution of the photovoltaic parameters of the resulting devices during thermal stress is monitored and compared, demonstrating a nearly identical resistance against temperature. The reported results not only highlight the promising properties of the new polymer in terms of environmental stability and compatibility with nonhalogenated solvents, but also show an easy and ecofriendly way to further improve the device performance without altering the corresponding thermal stability.

thiophene

conjugated polymers

thermal stability

copolymers

additives

donor polymer

BHJ solar cells

photovoltaic properties

nonchlorinated processing solvent

benzodithiophene

design

open-circuit voltage

Polymer Science

performance

Author

Mirko Seri

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Desta Antenehe Gedefaw

University of South Australia

M. Prosa

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Marta Tessarolo

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Margherita Bolognesi

Laboratory MIST E-R

Michele Muccini

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Mats Andersson

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry

0887-624X (ISSN) 1099-0518 (eISSN)

Vol. 55 2 234-242

Subject Categories

Textile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials

Materials Chemistry

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1002/pola.28361

More information

Latest update

9/6/2018 1