A Nitroxide Radical Conjugated Polymer as an Additive to Reduce Nonradiative Energy Loss in Organic Solar Cells
Journal article, 2023

Nonfullerene-acceptor-based organic solar cells (NFA-OSCs) are now set off to the 20% power conversion efficiency milestone. To achieve this, minimizing all loss channels, including nonradiative photovoltage losses, seems a necessity. Nonradiative recombination, to a great extent, is known to be an inherent material property due to vibrationally induced decay of charge-transfer (CT) states or their back electron transfer to the triplet excitons. Herein, it is shown that the use of a new conjugated nitroxide radical polymer with 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl piperidine-1-oxyl side groups (GDTA) as an additive results in an improvement of the photovoltaic performance of NFA-OSCs based on different active layer materials. Upon the addition of GDTA, the open-circuit voltage (VOC), fill factor (FF), and short-circuit current density (JSC) improve simultaneously. This approach is applied to several material systems including state-of-the-art donor/acceptor pairs showing improvement from 15.8% to 17.6% (in the case of PM6:Y6) and from 17.5% to 18.3% (for PM6:BTP-eC9). Then, the possible reasons behind the observed improvements are discussed. The results point toward the suppression of the CT state to triplet excitons loss channel. This work presents a facile, promising, and generic approach to further improve the performance of NFA-OSCs.

solid additives

organic solar cells

nonradiative energy loss

low-lying triplets

nitroxide radical conjugated polymers

Author

Furong Shi

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Pengzhi Guo

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Xianfeng Qiao

State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices

Guo Yao

Nanjing University

Tao Zhang

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Qi Lu

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Qian Wang

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Xiaofeng Wang

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Jasurbek Rikhsibaev

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Ergang Wang

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Chunfeng Zhang

Nanjing University

Young Wan Kwon

Korea University

Han Young Woo

Korea University

Hongbin Wu

State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices

Jianhui Hou

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Dongge Ma

State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices

Ardalan Armin

Swansea University

Yuguang Ma

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Yangjun Xia

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Advanced Materials

09359648 (ISSN) 15214095 (eISSN)

Vol. 35 23 2212084

Alkyl chain linked conjugated polymers for stable polymer solar cells

Swedish Research Council (VR) (2019-04683), 2020-01-01 -- 2023-12-31.

Next Generation Organic Solar Cells (OPV 2.0)

Swedish Research Council (VR) (2016-06146), 2017-01-01 -- 2022-12-31.

Swedish Research Council (VR) (2016-06146), 2017-01-01 -- 2022-12-31.

Swedish Research Council (VR) (2016-06146), 2017-01-01 -- 2022-12-31.

Subject Categories

Polymer Chemistry

Materials Chemistry

Other Chemistry Topics

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1002/adma.202212084

PubMed

36924360

More information

Latest update

3/7/2024 9