| 1. |
- Li, Chao, et al.
(författare)
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Non-fullerene acceptors with branched side chains and improved molecular packing to exceed 18% efficiency in organic solar cells
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nature Energy. - : NATURE RESEARCH. - 2058-7546.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Molecular design of acceptor and donor molecules has enabled major progress in organic photovoltaics. Li et al. show that branched alkyl chains in non-fullerene acceptors allow favourable morphology in the active layer, enabling a certified device efficiency of 17.9%. Molecular design of non-fullerene acceptors is of vital importance for high-efficiency organic solar cells. The branched alkyl chain modification is often regarded as a counter-intuitive approach, as it may introduce an undesirable steric hindrance that reduces charge transport in non-fullerene acceptors. Here we show the design and synthesis of a highly efficient non-fullerene acceptor family by substituting the beta position of the thiophene unit on a Y6-based dithienothiophen[3,2-b]-pyrrolobenzothiadiazole core with branched alkyl chains. It was found that such a modification to a different alkyl chain length could completely change the molecular packing behaviour of non-fullerene acceptors, leading to improved structural order and charge transport in thin films. An unprecedented efficiency of 18.32% (certified value of 17.9%) with a fill factor of 81.5% is achieved for single-junction organic solar cells. This work reveals the importance of the branched alkyl chain topology in tuning the molecular packing and blend morphology, which leads to improved organic photovoltaic performance.
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| 2. |
- He, Q., et al.
(författare)
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Revealing Morphology Evolution in Highly Efficient Bulk Heterojunction and Pseudo-Planar Heterojunction Solar Cells by Additives Treatment
- 2021
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Ingår i: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6832 .- 1614-6840. ; 11:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Additives treatment is as a very effective strategy to optimize bulk heterojunction (BHJ) morphology. However, the inherent working mechanism of this strategy still lacks systematical investigations in non-fullerene-acceptors-based organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, a series of BHJ and pseudo-planar heterojunction (PPHJ) OSCs using PM6 and IT-4F as the electron donor/acceptor pair, are developed to unveil the promoting effect of solvent additive 1, 8-diiodooctane (DIO) on active layer morphologies and device performance. The study clearly demonstrates that DIO can increase the crystallinity of IT-4F significantly, while it has less impact on PM6. It is notable that a new efficiency-determining crystalline balanced factor (CCLpolymer/CCLacceptor) is put forward, indicating that the more balanced CCLpolymer/CCLacceptor results in more balanced charge mobility and much better short-circuit current densities (Jsc) and fill factors (FF) of OSCs. The PPHJ blend film of PM6/IT-4F(DIO) exhibits enhanced crystallinity with more balanced CCL and favorable hierarchical distribution morphology, contributing to a champion efficiency of 13.70% with a record Jsc of 20.98 mA cm−2 and a remarkable FF of 75.9%. This work not only reveals the underlying mechanism of DIO caused morphology evolution, but also achieves highly efficient PPHJ OSCs with superior thermal stability by elaborately controlling the morphology of PPHJ film.
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| 3. |
- Jasiuunas, Rokas, et al.
(författare)
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Carrier Mobility Dynamics under Actual Working Conditions of Organic Solar Cells
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 125:27, s. 14567-14575
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although organic photovoltaics has made significant progress since its appearance decades ago, the underlying physics of charge transport in working cells is still under debate. Carrier mobility, determining the carrier extraction and recombination, is one of the most important but complex and still poorly understood parameters. Low-energy charge carrier states acting as traps play a particularly important role in carrier transport. Occupation of these states under real operation conditions of solar cells induces additional complexity. In this study, we use several transient methods and numerical modeling to address carrier transport under actual working conditions of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells based on fullerene and nonfullerene acceptors. We show that occupation of low-energy states strongly depends on the blend materials and the effective electric field. We define conditions when such occupation increases carrier mobility, making it less time-dependent on the microsecond time scale, and when its influence is only marginal. We also show that the initial mobility, determined by carrier relaxation within the high-energy part of the distributed density of states, strongly decreases with time independently of the low-energy state population.
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| 4. |
- Upreti, Tanvi, et al.
(författare)
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Slow Relaxation of Photogenerated Charge Carriers Boosts Open-Circuit Voltage of Organic Solar Cells
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1948-7185. ; 12:40, s. 9874-9881
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Among the parameters determining the efficiency of an organic solar cell, the open-circuit voltage (V-OC) is the one with most room for improvement. Existing models for the description of V-OC assume that photogenerated charge carriers are thermalized. Here, we demonstrate that quasi-equilibrium concepts cannot fully describe V-OC of disordered organic devices. For two representative donor:acceptor blends, it is shown that V-OC is actually 0.1-0.2 V higher than it would be if the system was in thermodynamic equilibrium. Extensive numerical modeling reveals that the excess energy is mainly due to incomplete relaxation in the disorder-broadened density of states. These findings indicate that organic solar cells work as nonequilibrium devices, in which part of the photon excess energy is harvested in the form of an enhanced V-OC.
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| 5. |
- Zhang, Huotian
(författare)
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Loss Mechanisms In Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cells
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Photovoltaics are one of the most important sustainable energy sources in the 21st century. Among photovoltaics, organic solar cells (OSCs) offer many advantages such as ease of processing, lightweight, the potential for flexibility, and tunable properties. Its peculiar nature and complexity present a fascinating charm, attracting many researchers. Thanks to researchers' efforts, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of OSCs has been boosted from 1% to 19% during the last three decades. Despite the exciting PCE, some problems remain to be solved, for example, the large voltage loss and long-term stability. The aim of this thesis is to understand the fundamental physics of the state-of-the-art OSCs, especially the loss mechanism. Ultimately, properly understanding the mechanisms will sever as the basis of OSCs further improvements and commercialization. This work focuses on the loss mechanisms of OSCs, particularly the open-circuit voltage and the fill factor. The beginning of this thesis introduces basic concepts regarding semiconductors physics and donor-acceptor OSCs. This part explains how a photon is used to generate electricity and the fundamentals of organic electronics. Subsequently, the detailed balance in a solar cell is reviewed, which is the basis of voltage loss analysis. In this part, we see how the input, recombination, and output form a balance. Then, the way to determine the voltage loss is shown, and the latest understandings in reducing the loss are reviewed. The fill factor, as a measure of the quality of a solar cell, is a complex parameter, especially in OSCs.The latter part of this thesis starts from the photophysical processes in an OSC, and then relates intrinsic parameters to the fill factor. The figure of merits has been employed to express the fill factor analytically. In the end, experimental methods and basic principles for the previous analysis are introduced, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the external quantum efficiency of photovoltaics (EQEPV), spectrograph for electroluminescence or photoluminescence, transient absorption, and time-delayed collection field. Overall, the thesis combined thermal dynamics and charge dynamics to analyze voltage losses and fill factor losses. The author hopes this work can contribute to a better understanding of the loss mechanisms OSCs.
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| 6. |
- Zhao, Fuwen, et al.
(författare)
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Highly efficient fused ring electron acceptors based on a new undecacyclic core
- 2021
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Ingår i: Materials Chemistry Frontiers. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 2052-1537. ; 5:4, s. 2001-2006
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two FREAs, IUIC-O and IUIC-T, based on an undecacyclic core were developed. IUIC-T having a higher extinction coefficient affords aligned energy levels with PBDB-T, finer nanoscale morphology and more orderly molecular stacking, thus achieving more efficient exciton dissociation and charge transport. Therefore, the PBDB-T:IUIC-T based OSC gains a higher PCE of 13.05%.
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