Issue 34, 2017

Non-fullerene polymer solar cells with VOC > 1 V based on fluorinated quinoxaline unit conjugated polymers

Abstract

To achieve efficient non-fullerene polymer solar cells (NF-PSCs), it is important to design and synthesize donor materials. To investigate the substituent effects of electron-withdrawing fluorine atoms and different alkyl chains (–C8C12 or –C10C14) on the thiophene π bridge, four novel conjugated polymers composed of dicyanodistyrylbenzene (DCB)-based and quinoxaline-based units were synthesized and applied in NF-PSC photovoltaic devices. It was found that the different alkyl side groups had a minimal influence on the molecular energy level but a moderate effect on the absorption coefficient, whereas the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the resulting copolymers could be effectively lowered by introducing highly electronegative fluorine atoms into the quinoxaline moiety. As a result, the NF-PSCs based on the fluorinated quinoxaline-based copolymer exhibited high open-circuit voltages (VOC) of up to 1.043 V, which is the highest value to date for devices based on quinoxaline moiety copolymers. Moreover, fluorination also improved the copolymer carrier mobility and absorption coefficient, leading to enhanced JSC and FF, thus giving rise to higher overall efficiencies. NF-PSCs based on PDCB-DFQ812:ITIC exhibited the best performance, with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.37%. Our comparative research indicates that fluorinated quinoxaline-based conjugated polymers are promising donor materials for NF-PSCs.

Graphical abstract: Non-fullerene polymer solar cells with VOC > 1 V based on fluorinated quinoxaline unit conjugated polymers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Jun 2017
Accepted
03 Aug 2017
First published
04 Aug 2017

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2017,5, 8774-8781

Non-fullerene polymer solar cells with VOC > 1 V based on fluorinated quinoxaline unit conjugated polymers

B. He, Q. Yin, X. Yang, L. Liu, X. Jiang, J. Zhang, F. Huang and Y. Cao, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2017, 5, 8774 DOI: 10.1039/C7TC02915B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements