1. |
- Wen, Guanzhao, et al.
(author)
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Energy level offsets determine the interplay between charge and energy transfer in all-small-molecule organic solar cells
- 2023
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In: Chemical Engineering Journal. - 1385-8947. ; 475
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- All-small-molecule organic solar cells (ASM OSCs) hold great promise in OSCs owing to their defined structures, simple purification, and good reproducibility, but are challenging for further improved efficiency. The energy level strategy has been broadly applied to obtain a better performance; however, a comprehensive understanding of the effects of energy level offset on photoexcitation dynamics in ASM OSCs is rarely studied. Herein, for Y-series molecules (Y6, Y10, Y5, and BTP-4F-12) based ASM OSCs, the effect of energy level offset on charge photogeneration was investigated using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopies. We found that both energy and charge transfer could occur in blend films. A method to quantitatively analyze the contribution of charge and energy transfer processes was developed. For BTR-Cl:Y6 with the highest LUMO level offset, ∼ 23% of photogenerated excitons in donor dissociated via “energy transfer and the subsequent charge transfer” pathway, suggesting that the energy transfer in blend films should also be considered. And for the hole transfer, the excitons in Y-series molecules can only be effectively dissociated when the HOMO energy level offset is higher than 0.11 eV. Besides, a higher energy level offset would also suppress carrier recombination in ultrafast timescale. These results may shed light on the design of ASM OSCs.
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2. |
- Wen, Guanzhao, et al.
(author)
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Excited-state properties of Y-series small molecule semiconductors
- 2021
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In: Dyes and Pigments. - : Elsevier BV. - 0143-7208. ; 192
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The emergence of the Y series small molecule semiconductors, Y6 and its derivatives, have significantly improved the performance of polymer solar cells (PSCs). However, the excited-state properties of these Y-series small molecule semiconductors which are highly important for designing high-performance PSCs, need to be illustrated. In this work, the excited-state properties and electronic structures of the Y-series small molecules (Y5, Y6, Y10, N3, Y6-BO-4F, and Y6-BO-4Cl) have been systematically studied by using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopies and quantum chemical calculations. It is shown that the influence of alkyl chains at the nitrogen atom of the pyrrole ring is weak for the electron affinities, ionization potentials, electron and hole reorganization energies and singlet exciton lifetime of Y molecules. Meanwhile, these parameters are found to be varied with the types of electron-deficient termini. Moreover, we find that Y10 and Y5 have the shortest singlet exciton lifetime in solution and the longest singlet exciton lifetime in film (~1100 ps), suggesting the engineering of electron-deficient termini can significantly influence the excited-state lifetime in solution and film. Our work could provide a guideline for designing Y-series acceptor materials for high-performance polymer solar cells.
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3. |
- Zhang, Wei, et al.
(author)
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Effect of post-thermal annealing on the performance and charge photogeneration dynamics of PffBT4T-2OD/PC71BM solar cells
- 2019
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In: Polymers. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-4360. ; 11:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this work, we studied influence of post thermal annealing on the performance and charge photogeneration processes of PffBT4T-2OD/PC 71 BM solar cells. As-prepared device exhibits a high-power conversion efficiency of 9.5%, much higher than that after thermal annealing. To understand this phenomenon, we studied charge photogeneration processes in these solar cells by means of time resolved spectroscopy. We associate the degradation of solar cell performance with the reduction of exciton dissociation efficiency and with increased bimolecular recombination of photogenerated charges as a result of annealing. We correlate the generation of localized PffBT4T-2OD polarons observed via spectro-electrochemical measurements with enhancement of the bimolecular charge recombination of annealed solar cells.
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4. |
- Zou, Xianshao, et al.
(author)
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An Insight into the Excitation States of Small Molecular Semiconductor Y6
- 2020
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In: Molecules. - : MDPI AG. - 1420-3049. ; 25:18
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Y6 is a new type of non-fullerene acceptor, which has led to power conversion efficiencies of single-junction polymer solar cells over 17% when combined with a careful choice of polymeric donors. However, the excited state characteristics of Y6, which is closely correlated with its opto-electronic applications, are not clear yet. In this work, we studied the excited state properties of the Y6 solution and Y6 film, by using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopies as well as time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations. UV-Vis absorption and fluorescence simulation, natural transition orbitals (NTOs) and hole-electron distribution analysis of Y6 solution were performed for understanding the excitation properties of Y6 by using TD-DFT calculations. The lifetimes of the lowest singlet excited state in Y6 solution and film were estimated to be 0.98 and 0.8 ns, respectively. Combining the exciton lifetime and photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield, the intrinsic radiative decay lifetimes of Y6 in the solution and film were estimated, which were 1.3 and 10.5 ns for the Y6 solution and film, respectively. Long exciton lifetime (~0.8 ns) and intrinsic radiative decay lifetime (~10.5 ns) of Y6 film enable Y6 to be a good acceptor material for the application of polymer solar cells.
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