High-Throughput Screening of Blade-Coated Polymer:Polymer Solar Cells: Solvent Determines Achievable Performance.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Renewable Energy
• Organic Electronics

Background:

• Organic solar cells (OSCs) performance is highly dependent on active layer microstructure.
• Optimizing polymer:polymer OSCs is challenging, especially when translating from lab-scale spin coating to scalable methods.
• PBDB-T and PF5-Y5 represent a promising polymer:polymer system for OSC applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize the photovoltaic performance of blade-coated polymer:polymer organic solar cells.
• To investigate the impact of various parameters on device efficiency using a high-throughput approach.
• To identify key factors influencing performance for scalable OSC fabrication.

Main Methods:

• Employed a high-throughput methodology to fabricate over 500 devices.
• Systematically varied parameters including solvent system, active layer composition, ratio, and thickness.
• Utilized less than 24 mg of each component (PBDB-T and PF5-Y5) for optimization.

Main Results:

• Achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.43% for blade-coated devices.
• Demonstrated significant variation in PCE, ranging from 0.08% to 6.43%.
• Statistical analysis revealed solvent selection as the primary factor affecting device performance due to its influence on microstructure.

Conclusions:

• Solvent selection is critical for optimizing polymer:polymer OSCs, impacting active layer morphology and device efficiency.
• The Hansen space plot is proposed as an effective tool for guiding solvent selection in organic photovoltaics.
• High-throughput methods enable efficient optimization of OSCs, facilitating the development of scalable manufacturing techniques.