Significance of thermodynamic interaction parameters in guiding the optimization of polymer:nonfullerene solar cells
Mengyuan Gao1, Ziqi Liang1, Yanhou Geng1
1School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China. yelong@tju.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on polymer donors and nonfullerene small molecule acceptors are a very attractive technology for solar energy conversion, and their performance is heavily determined by film morphology. It is of considerable interest to reveal instructive morphology-performance relationships of these blends. This feature article discusses the recent advances in analysing the morphology formation of nonfullerene PSCs with an effective polymer thermodynamic quantity, i.e., Flory-Huggins interaction parameter χ. In particular, guidelines of high and low χ systems are summarized. The fundamental understanding of χ and its correlations to film morphology and photovoltaic device parameters is of utmost relevance for providing essential material design criteria, establishing suitable morphology processing guidelines, and thus advancing the practical applications of PSCs based on nonfullerene acceptors.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Thermodynamics: Activity Coefficient
The activity coefficient is a measure of the deviation from ideal behavior. When the ionic strength of the solution is minimal, the activity coefficient of an ionic species is close to unity, making...
Thermodynamic Potentials
Thermal Sigmatropic Reactions: Overview
Sigmatropic shifts are classified based on an order term [i, j ], where i and j indicate the number of atoms across which each end of the σ bond migrates. Below are examples of a [3,3] sigmatropic shift in 1,5-hexadiene, referred...
Diels–Alder vs Retro-Diels–Alder Reaction: Thermodynamic Factors
Thermal Electrocyclic Reactions: Stereochemistry
Selection Rules: Thermal Activation
Conjugated systems containing an even number of π-electron pairs undergo a conrotatory ring closure. For example, thermal electrocyclization of (2E,4E)-2,4-hexadiene, a conjugated diene containing two π-electron pairs, gives trans-3,4-dimethylcyclobutene.
Maxwell's Thermodynamic Relations
All thermodynamic potentials are exact differentials. Therefore, their second-order...


