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U-Shaped Dimeric Acceptors for Balancing Efficiency and Stability in Organic Solar Cells

Pengfei Ding^1,2, Zhenyu Chen^1,2, Daobin Yang^1,2

¹Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Energy Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, China.

Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)

|November 28, 2024

Summary

Researchers enhanced organic solar cells (OSCs) using U-shaped dimeric acceptors as a third component. This significantly boosted power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) and dramatically improved thermal stability, paving the way for commercialization.

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Organic Electronics
Photovoltaics

Background:

Organic solar cells (OSCs) face challenges in achieving commercial viability due to stability issues, despite improvements in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs).
Ternary strategies are explored to overcome limitations in binary organic solar cell architectures.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of introducing U-shaped dimeric acceptors (5-IDT and 6-IDT) as a third component in binary OSCs.
To enhance both the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and thermal stability of organic solar cells.

Main Methods:

Incorporation of U-shaped dimeric acceptors (5-IDT and 6-IDT) as a third component in binary organic solar cells.
Characterization of device performance, including PCE, exciton dissociation, charge transport, and energetic disorder.
Assessment of thermal stability through prolonged thermal stress testing (1000 hours).

Main Results:

Ternary OSCs with 6-IDT and 5-IDT achieved record PCEs of 19.32% and 19.96%, respectively, the highest for oligomeric acceptors.
Significant improvements in thermal stability were observed, with efficiency retention increasing from 18% to 32% (6-IDT) and 75% (5-IDT) after 1000 hours.
The enhanced stability was attributed to the ability of the smaller molecular length of 5-IDT to stabilize the blend morphology.

Conclusions:

Introducing U-shaped dimeric acceptors as a third component is an effective strategy to simultaneously enhance PCE and thermal stability in OSCs.
The molecular design, specifically the length of the dimeric acceptor, plays a crucial role in morphology stabilization and device performance.
These findings represent a significant advancement towards the commercial feasibility of organic solar cells.

Keywords:

acceptor dimer efficiency and stability molecular conformation organic solar cells

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