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Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells

For organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices to achieve consistent performance and long operational lifetimes, organic semiconductors must be processed with precise control over their purity, composition, and structure. This is particularly important for high volume solar cell manufacturing where control...

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Autores principales: Li, Yongxi, Huang, Xinjing, Mencke, Austin R., Kandappa, Sunil Kumar, Wang, Tonghui, Ding, Kan, Jiang, Zuo-Quan, Amassian, Aram, Liao, Liang-Sheng, Thompson, Mark E., Forrest, Stephen R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10266035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37252984
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301118120
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author Li, Yongxi
Huang, Xinjing
Mencke, Austin R.
Kandappa, Sunil Kumar
Wang, Tonghui
Ding, Kan
Jiang, Zuo-Quan
Amassian, Aram
Liao, Liang-Sheng
Thompson, Mark E.
Forrest, Stephen R.
author_facet Li, Yongxi
Huang, Xinjing
Mencke, Austin R.
Kandappa, Sunil Kumar
Wang, Tonghui
Ding, Kan
Jiang, Zuo-Quan
Amassian, Aram
Liao, Liang-Sheng
Thompson, Mark E.
Forrest, Stephen R.
author_sort Li, Yongxi
collection PubMed
description For organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices to achieve consistent performance and long operational lifetimes, organic semiconductors must be processed with precise control over their purity, composition, and structure. This is particularly important for high volume solar cell manufacturing where control of materials quality has a direct impact on yield and cost. Ternary-blend OPVs containing two acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A)-type nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) and a donor have proven to be an effective strategy to improve solar spectral coverage and reduce energy losses beyond that of binary-blend OPVs. Here, we show that the purity of such a ternary is compromised during blending to form a homogeneously mixed bulk heterojunction thin film. We find that the impurities originate from end-capping C=C/C=C exchange reactions of A–D–A-type NFAs, and that their presence influences both device reproducibility and long-term reliability. The end-capping exchange results in generation of up to four impurity constituents with strong dipolar character that interfere with the photoinduced charge transfer process, leading to reduced charge generation efficiency, morphological instabilities, and an increased vulnerability to photodegradation. As a consequence, the OPV efficiency falls to less than 65% of its initial value within 265 h when exposed to up to 10 suns intensity illumination. We propose potential molecular design strategies critical to enhancing the reproducibility as well as reliability of ternary OPVs by avoiding end-capping reactions.
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spelling pubmed-102660352023-11-30 Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells Li, Yongxi Huang, Xinjing Mencke, Austin R. Kandappa, Sunil Kumar Wang, Tonghui Ding, Kan Jiang, Zuo-Quan Amassian, Aram Liao, Liang-Sheng Thompson, Mark E. Forrest, Stephen R. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences For organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices to achieve consistent performance and long operational lifetimes, organic semiconductors must be processed with precise control over their purity, composition, and structure. This is particularly important for high volume solar cell manufacturing where control of materials quality has a direct impact on yield and cost. Ternary-blend OPVs containing two acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A)-type nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) and a donor have proven to be an effective strategy to improve solar spectral coverage and reduce energy losses beyond that of binary-blend OPVs. Here, we show that the purity of such a ternary is compromised during blending to form a homogeneously mixed bulk heterojunction thin film. We find that the impurities originate from end-capping C=C/C=C exchange reactions of A–D–A-type NFAs, and that their presence influences both device reproducibility and long-term reliability. The end-capping exchange results in generation of up to four impurity constituents with strong dipolar character that interfere with the photoinduced charge transfer process, leading to reduced charge generation efficiency, morphological instabilities, and an increased vulnerability to photodegradation. As a consequence, the OPV efficiency falls to less than 65% of its initial value within 265 h when exposed to up to 10 suns intensity illumination. We propose potential molecular design strategies critical to enhancing the reproducibility as well as reliability of ternary OPVs by avoiding end-capping reactions. National Academy of Sciences 2023-05-30 2023-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10266035/ /pubmed/37252984 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301118120 Text en Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Physical Sciences
Li, Yongxi
Huang, Xinjing
Mencke, Austin R.
Kandappa, Sunil Kumar
Wang, Tonghui
Ding, Kan
Jiang, Zuo-Quan
Amassian, Aram
Liao, Liang-Sheng
Thompson, Mark E.
Forrest, Stephen R.
Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells
title Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells
title_full Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells
title_fullStr Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells
title_full_unstemmed Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells
title_short Interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells
title_sort interactions between nonfullerene acceptors lead to unstable ternary organic photovoltaic cells
topic Physical Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10266035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37252984
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301118120
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