Toward More Efficient Organic Solar Cells: A Detailed Study of Loss Pathway and Its Impact on Overall Device Performance in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells

Bowen Sun; Nurlan Tokmoldin; Obaid Alqahtani; Acacia Patterson; Catherine S.P. De Castro; Drew B. Riley; Manasi Pranav; Ardalan Armin; Frédéric Laquai; Brian A. Collins; Dieter Neher; Safa Shoaee

doi:10.1002/aenm.202300980

Toward More Efficient Organic Solar Cells: A Detailed Study of Loss Pathway and Its Impact on Overall Device Performance in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells

Bowen Sun^*, Nurlan Tokmoldin, Obaid Alqahtani, Acacia Patterson, Catherine S.P. De Castro, Drew B. Riley, Manasi Pranav, Ardalan Armin, Frédéric Laquai, Brian A. Collins, Dieter Neher, Safa Shoaee^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

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

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Low-offset organic solar cell systems have attracted great interest since nonfullerene acceptors came into the picture. While numerous studies have focused on the charge generation process in these low-offset systems, only a few studies have focused on the details of each loss channel in the charge generation process and their impact on the overall device performance. Here, several nonfullerene acceptors are blended with the same polymer donor to form a series of low-offset organic solar cell systems where significant variation in device performance is observed. Through detailed analyses of loss pathways, it is found that: i) the donor:acceptor interfaces of PM6:Y6 and PM6:TPT10 are close to the optimum energetic condition, ii) energetics at the donor:acceptor interface are the most important factor to the overall device performance, iii) exciton dissociation yield can be field-dependent owing to the sufficiently small energetic offset at the donor:acceptor interface, and iv) the change in substituents in the terminal group of Y-series acceptors in this work mainly affects energetics at the donor:acceptor interface instead of the interface density in the active layer. In general, this work presents a path toward more efficient organic solar cells.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	2300980
Journal	Advanced Energy Materials
Volume	13
Issue number	26
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202300980
State	Published - Jul 14 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project Fabulous (Project Number 450968074) and Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640). The R-SOXS and morphology characterization were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE-SC0017923 and used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User facility under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231; also used the resources of the SST-1 beamline (Beamline 7-ID-1) of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704. This publication is based upon work supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under Award No. ORFS-CRG7-2019-4025. The pulsed-PLQY measurement was supported by the Welsh Government's Sêr Cymru II Program through the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh European Funding Office, and Swansea University strategic initiative in Sustainable Advanced Materials. A.A. is a Sêr Cymru II Rising Star Fellow. D.B.R. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (Grant No. PGSD3-545694-2020). Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project Fabulous (Project Number 450968074) and Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640). The R‐SOXS and morphology characterization were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE‐SC0017923 and used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User facility under Contract No. DE‐AC02‐05CH11231; also used the resources of the SST‐1 beamline (Beamline 7‐ID‐1) of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704. This publication is based upon work supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under Award No. ORFS‐CRG7‐2019‐4025. The pulsed‐PLQY measurement was supported by the Welsh Government's Sêr Cymru II Program through the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh European Funding Office, and Swansea University strategic initiative in Sustainable Advanced Materials. A.A. is a Sêr Cymru II Rising Star Fellow. D.B.R. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (Grant No. PGSD3‐545694‐2020).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Energy Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Keywords

exciton reformation
field-dependent exciton dissociation
loss pathways
low-offset NFA organic solar cells
structure–function relationships

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
General Materials Science

UN SDGs

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

Access to Document

10.1002/aenm.202300980

Cite this

Sun, B., Tokmoldin, N., Alqahtani, O., Patterson, A., De Castro, C. S. P., Riley, D. B., Pranav, M., Armin, A., Laquai, F., Collins, B. A., Neher, D., & Shoaee, S. (2023). Toward More Efficient Organic Solar Cells: A Detailed Study of Loss Pathway and Its Impact on Overall Device Performance in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 13(26), Article 2300980. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202300980

@article{9c6cff2d4b7a44b7abcbe73d6a2dd554,

title = "Toward More Efficient Organic Solar Cells: A Detailed Study of Loss Pathway and Its Impact on Overall Device Performance in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells",

abstract = "Low-offset organic solar cell systems have attracted great interest since nonfullerene acceptors came into the picture. While numerous studies have focused on the charge generation process in these low-offset systems, only a few studies have focused on the details of each loss channel in the charge generation process and their impact on the overall device performance. Here, several nonfullerene acceptors are blended with the same polymer donor to form a series of low-offset organic solar cell systems where significant variation in device performance is observed. Through detailed analyses of loss pathways, it is found that: i) the donor:acceptor interfaces of PM6:Y6 and PM6:TPT10 are close to the optimum energetic condition, ii) energetics at the donor:acceptor interface are the most important factor to the overall device performance, iii) exciton dissociation yield can be field-dependent owing to the sufficiently small energetic offset at the donor:acceptor interface, and iv) the change in substituents in the terminal group of Y-series acceptors in this work mainly affects energetics at the donor:acceptor interface instead of the interface density in the active layer. In general, this work presents a path toward more efficient organic solar cells.",

keywords = "exciton reformation, field-dependent exciton dissociation, loss pathways, low-offset NFA organic solar cells, structure–function relationships",

author = "Bowen Sun and Nurlan Tokmoldin and Obaid Alqahtani and Acacia Patterson and {De Castro}, {Catherine S.P.} and Riley, {Drew B.} and Manasi Pranav and Ardalan Armin and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Laquai and Collins, {Brian A.} and Dieter Neher and Safa Shoaee",

note = "Funding Information: The authors acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project Fabulous (Project Number 450968074) and Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640). The R-SOXS and morphology characterization were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE-SC0017923 and used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User facility under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231; also used the resources of the SST-1 beamline (Beamline 7-ID-1) of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704. This publication is based upon work supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under Award No. ORFS-CRG7-2019-4025. The pulsed-PLQY measurement was supported by the Welsh Government's S{\^e}r Cymru II Program through the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh European Funding Office, and Swansea University strategic initiative in Sustainable Advanced Materials. A.A. is a S{\^e}r Cymru II Rising Star Fellow. D.B.R. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (Grant No. PGSD3-545694-2020). Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: The authors acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project Fabulous (Project Number 450968074) and Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640). The R‐SOXS and morphology characterization were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE‐SC0017923 and used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User facility under Contract No. DE‐AC02‐05CH11231; also used the resources of the SST‐1 beamline (Beamline 7‐ID‐1) of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704. This publication is based upon work supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under Award No. ORFS‐CRG7‐2019‐4025. The pulsed‐PLQY measurement was supported by the Welsh Government's S{\^e}r Cymru II Program through the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh European Funding Office, and Swansea University strategic initiative in Sustainable Advanced Materials. A.A. is a S{\^e}r Cymru II Rising Star Fellow. D.B.R. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (Grant No. PGSD3‐545694‐2020). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors. Advanced Energy Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.",

year = "2023",

month = jul,

day = "14",

doi = "10.1002/aenm.202300980",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "13",

journal = "Advanced Energy Materials",

issn = "1614-6832",

publisher = "John Wiley and Sons Inc.",

number = "26",

}

Sun, B, Tokmoldin, N, Alqahtani, O, Patterson, A, De Castro, CSP, Riley, DB, Pranav, M, Armin, A, Laquai, F, Collins, BA, Neher, D & Shoaee, S 2023, 'Toward More Efficient Organic Solar Cells: A Detailed Study of Loss Pathway and Its Impact on Overall Device Performance in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells', Advanced Energy Materials, vol. 13, no. 26, 2300980. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202300980

TY - JOUR

T1 - Toward More Efficient Organic Solar Cells

T2 - A Detailed Study of Loss Pathway and Its Impact on Overall Device Performance in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells

AU - Sun, Bowen

AU - Tokmoldin, Nurlan

AU - Alqahtani, Obaid

AU - Patterson, Acacia

AU - De Castro, Catherine S.P.

AU - Riley, Drew B.

AU - Pranav, Manasi

AU - Armin, Ardalan

AU - Laquai, Frédéric

AU - Collins, Brian A.

AU - Neher, Dieter

AU - Shoaee, Safa

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project Fabulous (Project Number 450968074) and Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640). The R-SOXS and morphology characterization were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE-SC0017923 and used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User facility under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231; also used the resources of the SST-1 beamline (Beamline 7-ID-1) of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704. This publication is based upon work supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under Award No. ORFS-CRG7-2019-4025. The pulsed-PLQY measurement was supported by the Welsh Government's Sêr Cymru II Program through the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh European Funding Office, and Swansea University strategic initiative in Sustainable Advanced Materials. A.A. is a Sêr Cymru II Rising Star Fellow. D.B.R. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (Grant No. PGSD3-545694-2020). Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: The authors acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the project Fabulous (Project Number 450968074) and Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640). The R‐SOXS and morphology characterization were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program under Grant No. DE‐SC0017923 and used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User facility under Contract No. DE‐AC02‐05CH11231; also used the resources of the SST‐1 beamline (Beamline 7‐ID‐1) of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DESC0012704. This publication is based upon work supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under Award No. ORFS‐CRG7‐2019‐4025. The pulsed‐PLQY measurement was supported by the Welsh Government's Sêr Cymru II Program through the European Regional Development Fund, Welsh European Funding Office, and Swansea University strategic initiative in Sustainable Advanced Materials. A.A. is a Sêr Cymru II Rising Star Fellow. D.B.R. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (Grant No. PGSD3‐545694‐2020). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Advanced Energy Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

PY - 2023/7/14

Y1 - 2023/7/14

N2 - Low-offset organic solar cell systems have attracted great interest since nonfullerene acceptors came into the picture. While numerous studies have focused on the charge generation process in these low-offset systems, only a few studies have focused on the details of each loss channel in the charge generation process and their impact on the overall device performance. Here, several nonfullerene acceptors are blended with the same polymer donor to form a series of low-offset organic solar cell systems where significant variation in device performance is observed. Through detailed analyses of loss pathways, it is found that: i) the donor:acceptor interfaces of PM6:Y6 and PM6:TPT10 are close to the optimum energetic condition, ii) energetics at the donor:acceptor interface are the most important factor to the overall device performance, iii) exciton dissociation yield can be field-dependent owing to the sufficiently small energetic offset at the donor:acceptor interface, and iv) the change in substituents in the terminal group of Y-series acceptors in this work mainly affects energetics at the donor:acceptor interface instead of the interface density in the active layer. In general, this work presents a path toward more efficient organic solar cells.

AB - Low-offset organic solar cell systems have attracted great interest since nonfullerene acceptors came into the picture. While numerous studies have focused on the charge generation process in these low-offset systems, only a few studies have focused on the details of each loss channel in the charge generation process and their impact on the overall device performance. Here, several nonfullerene acceptors are blended with the same polymer donor to form a series of low-offset organic solar cell systems where significant variation in device performance is observed. Through detailed analyses of loss pathways, it is found that: i) the donor:acceptor interfaces of PM6:Y6 and PM6:TPT10 are close to the optimum energetic condition, ii) energetics at the donor:acceptor interface are the most important factor to the overall device performance, iii) exciton dissociation yield can be field-dependent owing to the sufficiently small energetic offset at the donor:acceptor interface, and iv) the change in substituents in the terminal group of Y-series acceptors in this work mainly affects energetics at the donor:acceptor interface instead of the interface density in the active layer. In general, this work presents a path toward more efficient organic solar cells.

KW - exciton reformation

KW - field-dependent exciton dissociation

KW - loss pathways

KW - low-offset NFA organic solar cells

KW - structure–function relationships

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159487693&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/aenm.202300980

DO - 10.1002/aenm.202300980

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85159487693

SN - 1614-6832

VL - 13

JO - Advanced Energy Materials

JF - Advanced Energy Materials

IS - 26

M1 - 2300980

ER -

Toward More Efficient Organic Solar Cells: A Detailed Study of Loss Pathway and Its Impact on Overall Device Performance in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this