One-Step Blade-Coated Highly Efficient Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with a Self-Assembled Interfacial Layer Enabled by Solvent Vapor Annealing
Journal article, 2019
A pronounced enhancement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) by 38% is achieved in one-step doctor-blade printing organic solar cells (OSCs) via a simple solvent vapor annealing (SVA) step. The organic blend composed of a donor polymer, a nonfullerene acceptor, and an interfacial layer (IL) molecular component is found to phase-separate vertically when exposed to a solvent vapor-saturated atmosphere. Remarkably, the spontaneous formation of a fine, self-organized IL between the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) layer and the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode facilitated by SVA yields solar cells with a significantly higher PCE (11.14%) than in control devices (8.05%) without SVA and in devices (10.06%) made with the more complex two-step doctor-blade printing method. The stratified nature of the ITO/IL/BHJ/cathode is corroborated by a range of complementary characterization techniques including surface energy, cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy, grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. This study demonstrates that a spontaneously formed IL with SVA treatment combines simplicity and precision with high device performance, thus making it attractive for large-area manufacturing of next-generation OSCs.
one-step doctor-blade
interfacial layer
nonfullerence organic solar cell
self-assembly
solvent vapor annealing
Author
Yuanbao Lin
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Jinan University
Liyang Yu
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry
Yuxin Xia
Dept Phys Chem & Biol IFM
Yuliar Firdaus
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Sheng Dong
South China University of Technology
Christian Müller
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry
Olle Inganas
Dept Phys Chem & Biol IFM
Fei Huang
South China University of Technology
Dept Phys Chem & Biol IFM
Thomas D. Anthopoulos
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Fengling Zhang
Jinan University
Lintao Hou
Jinan University
Solar RRL
2367198X (eISSN)
Vol. 3 8 1900179Subject Categories
Physical Chemistry
Materials Chemistry
DOI
10.1002/solr.201900179