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 1900179

Subject Categories

Physical Chemistry

Materials Chemistry

DOI

10.1002/solr.201900179

More information

Latest update

3/21/2023