Suppressing pre-aggregation to increase polymer solar cell ink shelf life

文献情報

出版日 2023-11-02

DOI 10.1039/D3TA06617G

インパクトファクター 12.732

著者

Zhen Wang, Zhengxing Peng, Nrup Balar, Harald Ade

原文を見る

要旨

Chemical degradation and morphology failure of ink-processed organic solar cells are now extensively studied. In contrast, the general problem that inks prepared via thermal and mechanical agitation degrade and age rapidly at room temperature has yet to be delineated as a commercialization bottleneck and resolved. This study unveils the intrinsic aging of common polymer:nonfullerene acceptor (NFA) binary inks and the impact of electro-optically active component additives on ink shelf life. As a result, we developed an effective approach to slow down the ink aging by employing an additive (i.e. PCBM variants) with high miscibility with the polymer and NFA. It is inferred that the PCBMs in the inks acts as a co-solvent and slows down the polymer and possibly the NFA pre-aggregation, preventing the formation of large domains in the films. At the same time, the PCBMs dissolved in the polymer-rich phase of the devices can maintain the electron percolations and hence benefit charge creation and collection. The method of introducing a hyper-miscible third component, that is, with concentration above the percolation threshold, to improve ink shelf life and maintain the percolation is delineated for the first time. It represents a synergistic approach to promote the scale-up of ink-processed organic solar cells.

掲載誌

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

CiteScore: 19.5

自己引用率: 4.7%

年間論文数: 2211

Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B & C cover high quality studies across all fields of materials chemistry. The journals focus on those theoretical or experimental studies that report new understanding, applications, properties and synthesis of materials. The journals have a strong history of publishing quality reports of interest to interdisciplinary communities and providing an efficient and rigorous service through peer review and publication. The journals are led by an international team of Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors who are all active researchers in their fields. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, B & C are separated by the intended application of the material studied. Broadly, applications in energy and sustainability are of interest to Journal of Materials Chemistry A, applications in biology and medicine are of interest to Journal of Materials Chemistry B, and applications in optical, magnetic and electronic devices are of interest to Journal of Materials Chemistry C. More than one Journal of Materials Chemistry journal may be suitable for certain fields and researchers are encouraged to submit their paper to the journal that they feel best fits for their particular article. Example topic areas within the scope of Journal of Materials Chemistry A are listed below. This list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive. Artificial photosynthesis Batteries Carbon dioxide conversion Catalysis Fuel cells Gas capture/separation/storage Green/sustainable materials Hydrogen generation Hydrogen storage Photocatalysis Photovoltaics Self-cleaning materials Self-healing materials Sensors Supercapacitors Thermoelectrics Water splitting Water treatment