Negligible Energy Loss During Charge Generation in Small-Molecule/Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Leads to Open-Circuit Voltage over 1.10 V

Maxime Babics; Tainan Duan; Ahmed Albalawi; Ru-Ze Liang; Federico Cruciani; Ionela-Daniela Carja; Dale Gottlieb; Iain McCulloch; Koen Vandewal; Frédéric Laquai; Pierre Beaujuge

doi:10.1021/acsaem.8b02020

Negligible Energy Loss During Charge Generation in Small-Molecule/Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Leads to Open-Circuit Voltage over 1.10 V

Maxime Babics, Tainan Duan, Ahmed Albalawi, Ru-Ze Liang, Federico Cruciani, Ionela-Daniela Carja, Dale Gottlieb, Iain McCulloch, Koen Vandewal, Frédéric Laquai, Pierre Beaujuge

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

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Solution-processable small molecules (SMs) that can serve as donors in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells are practical alternatives to their polymer counterparts. However, SM–fullerene blends commonly suffer severe voltage losses. In general, devices that reach open-circuit voltages (VOC) > 1 V yield low photocurrents in BHJ solar cells with fullerene acceptors (e.g., PC71BM) and modest power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). In this contribution, we report on the design, synthesis, and BHJ device characteristics of a new SM donor, 2F-DRCN5T, yielding a VOC of up to 1.10 V with PC71BM as the fullerene acceptor, while maintaining PCEs > 7% (over 8% achieved upon solvent-vapor-annealing (SVA) treatment). The negligible energy loss during charge generation (ΔECT), the deep-lying HOMO of 2F-DRCN5T inferred from its large ionization potential (IP), the high charge-transfer-state energy (ECT) of the blend, and a reduced nonradiative voltage loss account for the high VOC achieved in BHJ solar cells.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2717-2722
Number of pages	6
Journal	ACS Applied Energy Materials
Volume	2
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b02020
State	Published - Mar 29 2019

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): CRG-R2-13-BEAU-KAUST-1
Acknowledgements: This publication is based upon work supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award CRG-R2-13-BEAU-KAUST-1. The authors acknowledge concurrent support under Baseline Research Funding from KAUST. T.D. acknowledges financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (21702202).

Access to Document

10.1021/acsaem.8b02020

Cite this

Babics, M., Duan, T., Albalawi, A., Liang, R-Z., Cruciani, F., Carja, I-D., Gottlieb, D., McCulloch, I., Vandewal, K., Laquai, F., & Beaujuge, P. (2019). Negligible Energy Loss During Charge Generation in Small-Molecule/Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Leads to Open-Circuit Voltage over 1.10 V. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2(4), 2717-2722. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b02020

@article{b73e518e3d244503b27272406ca8341e,

title = "Negligible Energy Loss During Charge Generation in Small-Molecule/Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Leads to Open-Circuit Voltage over 1.10 V",

abstract = "Solution-processable small molecules (SMs) that can serve as donors in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells are practical alternatives to their polymer counterparts. However, SM–fullerene blends commonly suffer severe voltage losses. In general, devices that reach open-circuit voltages (VOC) > 1 V yield low photocurrents in BHJ solar cells with fullerene acceptors (e.g., PC71BM) and modest power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). In this contribution, we report on the design, synthesis, and BHJ device characteristics of a new SM donor, 2F-DRCN5T, yielding a VOC of up to 1.10 V with PC71BM as the fullerene acceptor, while maintaining PCEs > 7% (over 8% achieved upon solvent-vapor-annealing (SVA) treatment). The negligible energy loss during charge generation (ΔECT), the deep-lying HOMO of 2F-DRCN5T inferred from its large ionization potential (IP), the high charge-transfer-state energy (ECT) of the blend, and a reduced nonradiative voltage loss account for the high VOC achieved in BHJ solar cells.",

author = "Maxime Babics and Tainan Duan and Ahmed Albalawi and Ru-Ze Liang and Federico Cruciani and Ionela-Daniela Carja and Dale Gottlieb and Iain McCulloch and Koen Vandewal and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Laquai and Pierre Beaujuge",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): CRG-R2-13-BEAU-KAUST-1 Acknowledgements: This publication is based upon work supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award CRG-R2-13-BEAU-KAUST-1. The authors acknowledge concurrent support under Baseline Research Funding from KAUST. T.D. acknowledges financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (21702202).",

year = "2019",

month = mar,

day = "29",

doi = "10.1021/acsaem.8b02020",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "2",

pages = "2717--2722",

journal = "ACS Applied Energy Materials",

issn = "2574-0962",

publisher = "American Chemical Society",

number = "4",

}

Babics, M, Duan, T, Albalawi, A, Liang, R-Z, Cruciani, F, Carja, I-D, Gottlieb, D, McCulloch, I, Vandewal, K, Laquai, F & Beaujuge, P 2019, 'Negligible Energy Loss During Charge Generation in Small-Molecule/Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Leads to Open-Circuit Voltage over 1.10 V', ACS Applied Energy Materials, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 2717-2722. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.8b02020

TY - JOUR

T1 - Negligible Energy Loss During Charge Generation in Small-Molecule/Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Leads to Open-Circuit Voltage over 1.10 V

AU - Babics, Maxime

AU - Duan, Tainan

AU - Albalawi, Ahmed

AU - Liang, Ru-Ze

AU - Cruciani, Federico

AU - Carja, Ionela-Daniela

AU - Gottlieb, Dale

AU - McCulloch, Iain

AU - Vandewal, Koen

AU - Laquai, Frédéric

AU - Beaujuge, Pierre

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): CRG-R2-13-BEAU-KAUST-1 Acknowledgements: This publication is based upon work supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award CRG-R2-13-BEAU-KAUST-1. The authors acknowledge concurrent support under Baseline Research Funding from KAUST. T.D. acknowledges financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (21702202).

PY - 2019/3/29

Y1 - 2019/3/29

N2 - Solution-processable small molecules (SMs) that can serve as donors in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells are practical alternatives to their polymer counterparts. However, SM–fullerene blends commonly suffer severe voltage losses. In general, devices that reach open-circuit voltages (VOC) > 1 V yield low photocurrents in BHJ solar cells with fullerene acceptors (e.g., PC71BM) and modest power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). In this contribution, we report on the design, synthesis, and BHJ device characteristics of a new SM donor, 2F-DRCN5T, yielding a VOC of up to 1.10 V with PC71BM as the fullerene acceptor, while maintaining PCEs > 7% (over 8% achieved upon solvent-vapor-annealing (SVA) treatment). The negligible energy loss during charge generation (ΔECT), the deep-lying HOMO of 2F-DRCN5T inferred from its large ionization potential (IP), the high charge-transfer-state energy (ECT) of the blend, and a reduced nonradiative voltage loss account for the high VOC achieved in BHJ solar cells.

AB - Solution-processable small molecules (SMs) that can serve as donors in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells are practical alternatives to their polymer counterparts. However, SM–fullerene blends commonly suffer severe voltage losses. In general, devices that reach open-circuit voltages (VOC) > 1 V yield low photocurrents in BHJ solar cells with fullerene acceptors (e.g., PC71BM) and modest power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). In this contribution, we report on the design, synthesis, and BHJ device characteristics of a new SM donor, 2F-DRCN5T, yielding a VOC of up to 1.10 V with PC71BM as the fullerene acceptor, while maintaining PCEs > 7% (over 8% achieved upon solvent-vapor-annealing (SVA) treatment). The negligible energy loss during charge generation (ΔECT), the deep-lying HOMO of 2F-DRCN5T inferred from its large ionization potential (IP), the high charge-transfer-state energy (ECT) of the blend, and a reduced nonradiative voltage loss account for the high VOC achieved in BHJ solar cells.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/653036

UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsaem.8b02020

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064843360&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acsaem.8b02020

DO - 10.1021/acsaem.8b02020

M3 - Article

SN - 2574-0962

VL - 2

SP - 2717

EP - 2722

JO - ACS Applied Energy Materials

JF - ACS Applied Energy Materials

IS - 4

ER -

Negligible Energy Loss During Charge Generation in Small-Molecule/Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Leads to Open-Circuit Voltage over 1.10 V

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this