TY - JOUR
T1 - Progress in Poly (3-Hexylthiophene) Organic Solar Cells and the Influence of Its Molecular Weight on Device Performance
AU - Wadsworth, Andrew
AU - Hamid, Zeinab
AU - Bidwell, Matthew
AU - Ashraf, Raja
AU - Khan, Jafar Iqbal
AU - Anjum, Dalaver H.
AU - Cendra, Camila
AU - Yan, Jun
AU - Rezasoltani, Elham
AU - Guilbert, Anne A. Y.
AU - Azzouzi, Mohammed
AU - Gasparini, Nicola
AU - Bannock, James H.
AU - Baran, Derya
AU - Wu, Hongbin
AU - de Mello, John C.
AU - Brabec, Christoph J.
AU - Salleo, Alberto
AU - Nelson, Jenny
AU - Laquai, Frédéric
AU - McCulloch, Iain
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The authors thank KAUST for financial support and acknowledge EC FP7 Project SC2 (610115), ECH2020 (643791), and EPSRC Projects EP/G037515/1, EP/M005143/1 and EP/L016702/1. Portions of this research were carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a national user facility operated by Stanford University on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
PY - 2018/6/26
Y1 - 2018/6/26
N2 - Poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) was an early frontrunner in the development of donor polymers to be used in organic photovoltaics. A relatively straightforward and inexpensive synthesis suggests that it may be the most viable donor polymer to use in large-scale commercial organic solar cells. Replacing fullerenes with new electron acceptors has led to significant improvements in device performance and stability, with devices now able to exceed an efficiency of 7%. Past studies have reported a dependence of device performance on the molecular weight of the polymer in fullerene-containing blends, however, with nonfullerene acceptors now showing promise a similar study was needed. P3HT blends, with two nonfullerene acceptors (O-IDTBR and EH-IDTBR), were probed using a number of polymer batches with varying molecular weights. O-IDTBR was shown to exhibit a dependence on the polymer molecular weight, with optimal performance achieved with a 34 kDa polymer, while EH-IDTBR displayed an independence in performance with varying polymer molecular weight. Probing the thermal and morphological behavior of the P3HT:O-IDTBR blends suggests that an optimal morphology with pronounced donor and acceptor domains was only achieved with the 34 kDa polymer, and a greater degree of mixing was exhibited in the other blends, likely leading to poorer device performance.
AB - Poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) was an early frontrunner in the development of donor polymers to be used in organic photovoltaics. A relatively straightforward and inexpensive synthesis suggests that it may be the most viable donor polymer to use in large-scale commercial organic solar cells. Replacing fullerenes with new electron acceptors has led to significant improvements in device performance and stability, with devices now able to exceed an efficiency of 7%. Past studies have reported a dependence of device performance on the molecular weight of the polymer in fullerene-containing blends, however, with nonfullerene acceptors now showing promise a similar study was needed. P3HT blends, with two nonfullerene acceptors (O-IDTBR and EH-IDTBR), were probed using a number of polymer batches with varying molecular weights. O-IDTBR was shown to exhibit a dependence on the polymer molecular weight, with optimal performance achieved with a 34 kDa polymer, while EH-IDTBR displayed an independence in performance with varying polymer molecular weight. Probing the thermal and morphological behavior of the P3HT:O-IDTBR blends suggests that an optimal morphology with pronounced donor and acceptor domains was only achieved with the 34 kDa polymer, and a greater degree of mixing was exhibited in the other blends, likely leading to poorer device performance.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/631320
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aenm.201801001
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85054408100&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/aenm.201801001
DO - 10.1002/aenm.201801001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85054408100
SN - 1614-6832
VL - 8
SP - 1801001
JO - Advanced Energy Materials
JF - Advanced Energy Materials
IS - 28
ER -