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Published on: September 12, 2014
A Nonconjugated Zwitterionic Polymer: Cathode Interfacial Layer Comparable with PFN for Narrow-Bandgap Polymer Solar
Zhendong Li1, Qiaoyun Chen1, Yanfeng Liu1
1College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China.
Abstract:
A nonconjugated, alcohol-soluble zwitterionic polymer, poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (denoted by PSBMA), is employed as cathode interfacial layer (CIL) in polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on PTB7-Th:PC71 BM. Compared with the control device without CIL, PSCs with PSBMA CILs show significant enhancement on the resulting performance, and the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.27% is achieved. Under parallel conditions, PSCs with PSBMA as CIL show comparable performance than those with widely used poly[(9,9-bis(30-(N,N-dimethylamino)propyl)-2,7-fluorene)-alt-2,7-(9,9-ioctylfluorene)] as CIL. The polar groups of PSBMA not only provide a solvent orthogonal solubility in the process of preparation of the devices but also lead to interfacial dipole to the electrode, which promises a better energy level alignment. In addition, PSBMA-based devices show better abilities of hole blocking. These results indicate that the zwitterionic polymer PSBMA should be a promising CIL in PSC-based narrow-bandgap polymers.
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