Burn-in Free Nonfullerene-Based Organic Solar Cells

Nicola Gasparini; Michael Salvador; Sebastian Strohm; Thomas Heumueller; Ievgen Levchuk; Andrew Wadsworth; James H. Bannock; John C. de Mello; Hans-Joachim Egelhaaf; Derya Baran; Iain McCulloch; Christoph J. Brabec

doi:10.1002/aenm.201700770

Burn-in Free Nonfullerene-Based Organic Solar Cells

Nicola Gasparini, Michael Salvador, Sebastian Strohm, Thomas Heumueller, Ievgen Levchuk, Andrew Wadsworth, James H. Bannock, John C. de Mello, Hans-Joachim Egelhaaf, Derya Baran, Iain McCulloch, Christoph J. Brabec

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

173 Scopus citations

Abstract

Organic solar cells that are free of burn-in, the commonly observed rapid performance loss under light, are presented. The solar cells are based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with varying molecular weights and a nonfullerene acceptor (rhodanine-benzothiadiazole-coupled indacenodithiophene, IDTBR) and are fabricated in air. P3HT:IDTBR solar cells light-soaked over the course of 2000 h lose about 5% of power conversion efficiency (PCE), in stark contrast to [6,6]-Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)-based solar cells whose PCE shows a burn-in that extends over several hundreds of hours and levels off at a loss of ≈34%. Replacing PCBM with IDTBR prevents short-circuit current losses due to fullerene dimerization and inhibits disorder-induced open-circuit voltage losses, indicating a very robust device operation that is insensitive to defect states. Small losses in fill factor over time are proposed to originate from polymer or interface defects. Finally, the combination of enhanced efficiency and stability in P3HT:IDTBR increases the lifetime energy yield by more than a factor of 10 when compared with the same type of devices using a fullerene-based acceptor instead.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1700770
Journal	Advanced Energy Materials
Volume	7
Issue number	19
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201700770
State	Published - Jul 3 2017

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-09-14
Acknowledgements: N.G. and M.S. contributed equally to this work. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Cluster of Excellence “Engineering of Advanced Materials” at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of its “Excellence Initiative,” Synthetic Carbon Allotropes (SFB953) and Solar Technologies go Hybrid (SolTech). M.S. acknowledges primary support from a fellowship by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/71816/2010). The authors wish to thank Dr. Siva Krishnadasan (Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London) for assistance in the preparation of P3HT and Dr. Florian Machui (ZAE Bayern) for fruitful discussions for device preparation.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Materials Science(all)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1002/aenm.201700770

https://repository.kaust.edu.sa/bitstream/10754/627078/1/Gasparini%20et%20al.%20Main%20text%20and%20SI_REVISION.pdf

Cite this

@article{ab4c44d09af64b2b86c7ca5c1b3e7158,

title = "Burn-in Free Nonfullerene-Based Organic Solar Cells",

abstract = "Organic solar cells that are free of burn-in, the commonly observed rapid performance loss under light, are presented. The solar cells are based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with varying molecular weights and a nonfullerene acceptor (rhodanine-benzothiadiazole-coupled indacenodithiophene, IDTBR) and are fabricated in air. P3HT:IDTBR solar cells light-soaked over the course of 2000 h lose about 5% of power conversion efficiency (PCE), in stark contrast to [6,6]-Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)-based solar cells whose PCE shows a burn-in that extends over several hundreds of hours and levels off at a loss of ≈34%. Replacing PCBM with IDTBR prevents short-circuit current losses due to fullerene dimerization and inhibits disorder-induced open-circuit voltage losses, indicating a very robust device operation that is insensitive to defect states. Small losses in fill factor over time are proposed to originate from polymer or interface defects. Finally, the combination of enhanced efficiency and stability in P3HT:IDTBR increases the lifetime energy yield by more than a factor of 10 when compared with the same type of devices using a fullerene-based acceptor instead.",

author = "Nicola Gasparini and Michael Salvador and Sebastian Strohm and Thomas Heumueller and Ievgen Levchuk and Andrew Wadsworth and Bannock, {James H.} and {de Mello}, {John C.} and Hans-Joachim Egelhaaf and Derya Baran and Iain McCulloch and Brabec, {Christoph J.}",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-09-14 Acknowledgements: N.G. and M.S. contributed equally to this work. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Cluster of Excellence “Engineering of Advanced Materials” at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of its “Excellence Initiative,” Synthetic Carbon Allotropes (SFB953) and Solar Technologies go Hybrid (SolTech). M.S. acknowledges primary support from a fellowship by the Portuguese Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/71816/2010). The authors wish to thank Dr. Siva Krishnadasan (Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London) for assistance in the preparation of P3HT and Dr. Florian Machui (ZAE Bayern) for fruitful discussions for device preparation.",

year = "2017",

month = jul,

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doi = "10.1002/aenm.201700770",

language = "English (US)",

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T1 - Burn-in Free Nonfullerene-Based Organic Solar Cells

AU - Gasparini, Nicola

AU - Salvador, Michael

AU - Strohm, Sebastian

AU - Heumueller, Thomas

AU - Levchuk, Ievgen

AU - Wadsworth, Andrew

AU - Bannock, James H.

AU - de Mello, John C.

AU - Egelhaaf, Hans-Joachim

AU - Baran, Derya

AU - McCulloch, Iain

AU - Brabec, Christoph J.

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-09-14 Acknowledgements: N.G. and M.S. contributed equally to this work. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Cluster of Excellence “Engineering of Advanced Materials” at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of its “Excellence Initiative,” Synthetic Carbon Allotropes (SFB953) and Solar Technologies go Hybrid (SolTech). M.S. acknowledges primary support from a fellowship by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/71816/2010). The authors wish to thank Dr. Siva Krishnadasan (Department of Chemistry, Imperial College, London) for assistance in the preparation of P3HT and Dr. Florian Machui (ZAE Bayern) for fruitful discussions for device preparation.

PY - 2017/7/3

Y1 - 2017/7/3

N2 - Organic solar cells that are free of burn-in, the commonly observed rapid performance loss under light, are presented. The solar cells are based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with varying molecular weights and a nonfullerene acceptor (rhodanine-benzothiadiazole-coupled indacenodithiophene, IDTBR) and are fabricated in air. P3HT:IDTBR solar cells light-soaked over the course of 2000 h lose about 5% of power conversion efficiency (PCE), in stark contrast to [6,6]-Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)-based solar cells whose PCE shows a burn-in that extends over several hundreds of hours and levels off at a loss of ≈34%. Replacing PCBM with IDTBR prevents short-circuit current losses due to fullerene dimerization and inhibits disorder-induced open-circuit voltage losses, indicating a very robust device operation that is insensitive to defect states. Small losses in fill factor over time are proposed to originate from polymer or interface defects. Finally, the combination of enhanced efficiency and stability in P3HT:IDTBR increases the lifetime energy yield by more than a factor of 10 when compared with the same type of devices using a fullerene-based acceptor instead.

AB - Organic solar cells that are free of burn-in, the commonly observed rapid performance loss under light, are presented. The solar cells are based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with varying molecular weights and a nonfullerene acceptor (rhodanine-benzothiadiazole-coupled indacenodithiophene, IDTBR) and are fabricated in air. P3HT:IDTBR solar cells light-soaked over the course of 2000 h lose about 5% of power conversion efficiency (PCE), in stark contrast to [6,6]-Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)-based solar cells whose PCE shows a burn-in that extends over several hundreds of hours and levels off at a loss of ≈34%. Replacing PCBM with IDTBR prevents short-circuit current losses due to fullerene dimerization and inhibits disorder-induced open-circuit voltage losses, indicating a very robust device operation that is insensitive to defect states. Small losses in fill factor over time are proposed to originate from polymer or interface defects. Finally, the combination of enhanced efficiency and stability in P3HT:IDTBR increases the lifetime energy yield by more than a factor of 10 when compared with the same type of devices using a fullerene-based acceptor instead.

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U2 - 10.1002/aenm.201700770

DO - 10.1002/aenm.201700770

M3 - Article

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JO - Advanced Energy Materials

JF - Advanced Energy Materials

SN - 1614-6832

IS - 19

ER -

Burn-in Free Nonfullerene-Based Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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