Reducing the efficiency-stability-cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Technological deployment of organic photovoltaic modules requires improvements in device light-conversion efficiency and stability while keeping material costs low. Here we demonstrate highly efficient and stable solar cells using a ternary approach, wherein two non-fullerene acceptors are combined with both a scalable and affordable donor polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and a high-efficiency, low-bandgap polymer in a single-layer bulk-heterojunction device. The addition of a strongly absorbing small molecule acceptor into a P3HT-based non-fullerene blend increases the device efficiency up to 7.7 ± 0.1% without any solvent additives. The improvement is assigned to changes in microstructure that reduce charge recombination and increase the photovoltage, and to improved light harvesting across the visible region. The stability of P3HT-based devices in ambient conditions is also significantly improved relative to polymer:fullerene devices. Combined with a low-bandgap donor polymer (PBDTTT-EFT, also known as PCE10), the two mixed acceptors also lead to solar cells with 11.0 ± 0.4% efficiency and a high open-circuit voltage of 1.03 ± 0.01 V.
Date Issued
2016-11-21
Date Acceptance
2016-10-13
Citation
Nature Materials, 2016, 16, pp.363-369
ISSN
1476-4660
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Start Page
363
End Page
369
Journal / Book Title
Nature Materials
Volume
16
Copyright Statement
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Commission of the European Communities
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Commission of the European Communities
Kaust
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Identifier
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27869824
PII: nmat4797
Grant Number
PIRSES-GA-2013-612538
610115
EP/K030671/1
604397
CHEDG_P61719
EP/J021199/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Technology
Chemistry, Physical
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Chemistry
Materials Science
Physics
OPEN-CIRCUIT VOLTAGE
NON-FULLERENE-ACCEPTOR
POLYMER
EFFICIENT
PERFORMANCE
BLEND
MORPHOLOGY
IMPROVEMENT
P3HT/PCBM
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2016-11-21