Overcoming the morphological and efficiency limit in all-polymer solar cells by designing conjugated random copolymers containing a naphtho[1,2-c:5,6-c′]bis([1,2,5]thiadiazole)] moiety

Ruihao Xie; Zhenye Li; Wenkai Zhong; Lei Ying; Qin Hu; Feng Liu; Ning Li; Thomas P. Russell; Fei Huang; Yong Cao

doi:10.1039/C8TA09356C

Overcoming the morphological and efficiency limit in all-polymer solar cells by designing conjugated random copolymers containing a naphtho[1,2-c:5,6-c′]bis([1,2,5]thiadiazole)] moiety†

Ruihao Xie,‡^a Zhenye Li,‡^a Wenkai Zhong,‡^a Lei Ying,

*^a Qin Hu,^cd Feng Liu,*^b Ning Li,

^e Thomas P. Russell,

^cd Fei Huang

*^a and Yong Cao^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
E-mail: msleiying@scut.edu.cn, msfhuang@scut.edu.cn

^b Department of Physics and Astronomy, Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
E-mail: fengliu82@sjtu.edu.cn

^c Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

^d Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 120 Governors Drive, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

^e Institute of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET), FAU Erlangen–Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Abstract

The ternary concept based on two electron donors and one electron acceptor has been deployed to extend the absorption as well as photovoltaic performance of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). However, it is still challenging to achieve the delicate morphology of ternary blended bulk-heterojunction films through rational molecular design. To overcome these issues, herein, we designed and synthesized a series of narrow bandgap conjugated copolymers by combining two conjugated polymers with various molar ratios of the naphthobis[1,2,5]thiadiazole (NT) unit (namely, NT00–NT100). All-PSCs were constructed by integrating these resultant copolymers with a commercially available electron-accepting copolymer N2200. The resultant all-PSCs based on the ternary copolymers NT40 exhibited an impressively high power conversion efficiency over 8.0%, which was clearly superior to that obtained for devices based on the NT00 : NT100 : N2200 blended films. Further characterization of the morphology of the films revealed that the incorporation of the NT unit improved π–π stacking and a degree of phase separation, which are conducive to exciton diffusion and charge transport.

This article is part of the themed collection: 2018 Journal of Materials Chemistry A HOT Papers

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Overcoming the morphological and efficiency limit in all-polymer solar cells by designing conjugated random copolymers containing a naphtho[1,2-c:5,6-c′]bis([1,2,5]thiadiazole)] moiety†

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Overcoming the morphological and efficiency limit in all-polymer solar cells by designing conjugated random copolymers containing a naphtho[1,2-c:5,6-c′]bis([1,2,5]thiadiazole)] moiety

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