Mechanically Robust All-Polymer Solar Cells from Narrow Band Gap Acceptors with Hetero-Bridging Atoms
Journal article, 2020

We developed three narrow band-gap polymer acceptors PF2-DTC, PF2-DTSi, and PF2-DTGe with different bridging atoms (i.e., C, Si, and Ge). Studies found that such different bridging atoms significantly affect the crystallinity, extinction coefficient, electron mobility of the polymer acceptors, and the morphology and mechanical robustness of related active layers. In all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs), these polymer acceptors achieved high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 8.0%, while PF2-DTSi obtained the highest PCE of 10.77% due to its improved exciton dissociation, charge transport, and optimized morphology. Moreover, the PF2-DTSi-based active layer showed excellent mechanical robustness with a high toughness value of 9.3 MJ m−3 and a large elongation at a break of 8.6%, which is a great advantage for the practical applications of flexible devices. As a result, the PF2-DTSi-based flexible all-PSC retained >90% of its initial PCE (6.37%) after bending and relaxing 1,200 times at a bending radius of ∼4 mm.

all-polymer solar cells

dithienosilole

power conversion efficiency

polymer acceptor

flexible solar cells

mechanical robustness

Author

Qunping Fan

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Center for Research in Advanced Materials CIMAV)

Wenyan Su

Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados

Jinan University

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Shanshan Chen

Chongqing University

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados

Wansun Kim

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Xiaobin Chen

Soochow University

Byongkyu Lee

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

Tao Liu

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Ulises Mendez Romero

Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Ruijie Ma

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Tao Yang

University of Aveiro

Wenliu Zhuang

Guangdong Industry Polytechnic

Yu Li

Guangdong Industry Polytechnic

Yaowen Li

Soochow University

Taek Soo Kim

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Lintao Hou

Jinan University

Changduk Yang

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

He Yan

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Donghong Yu

Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research Denmark

Aalborg University

Ergang Wang

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Zhengzhou University

Joule

25424351 (eISSN)

Vol. 4 3 658-672

Subject Categories

Polymer Chemistry

Textile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials

Materials Chemistry

DOI

10.1016/j.joule.2020.01.014

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7/3/2024 2