Abstract
Organic solar cells utilize an energy-level offset to generate free charge carriers. Although a very small energy-level offset increases the open-circuit voltage, it remains unclear how exactly charge generation is affected. Here we investigate organic solar cell blends with highest occupied molecular orbital energy-level offsets (∆EHOMO) between the donor and acceptor that range from 0 to 300 meV. We demonstrate that exciton quenching at a negligible ∆EHOMO takes place on timescales that approach the exciton lifetime of the pristine materials, which drastically limits the external quantum efficiency. We quantitatively describe this finding via the Boltzmann stationary-state equilibrium between charge-transfer states and excitons and further reveal a long exciton lifetime to be decisive in maintaining an efficient charge generation at a negligible ∆EHOMO. Moreover, the Boltzmann equilibrium quantitatively describes the major reduction in non-radiative voltage losses at a very small ∆EHOMO. Ultimately, highly luminescent near-infrared emitters with very long exciton lifetimes are suggested to enable highly efficient organic solar cells.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Nature Energy |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 31 2020 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: A.C. and C.J.B. gratefully acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), Project no. 182849149-SFB 953. C.J.B. gratefully acknowledges financial support through the ‘Aufbruch Bayern’ initiative of the state of Bavaria (EnCN and SFF) and the Bavarian Initiative ‘Solar Technologies go Hybrid’ (SolTech) and funding from DFG project DFG INST 90/917. C.C.L. thanks the European Union for the financial support. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 761112 (PRESTIGE) and no. 820789 (OLEDSOLAR).