Abstract
Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have attracted broad research attention, because organic semiconductors offer advantages, including mechanical flexibility, light weight, and facile module manufacture by high-throughput printing methodologies, vis-a-vis conventional inorganic solar materials. In this study, we report the realization of new, readily accessible donor polymers and their implementation in high-efficiency solar cells and modules. These polymers yield OPV cells with certified PCEs of >14% and values of 12%–14% when the photoactive blend is processed in ambient and/or without halogenated solvents. Finally, we demonstrate the fabrication of a large active-area module (>20 cm2) with certified PCE of 10.1% (22% indoor lighting), which is by far the highest PCE reported to date. This work represents an important step forward in the development of OPV materials for fabricating large-scale OPV modules with extremely high figures of merit, inferring that OPV cells can reach commercialization.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 189-206 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Joule |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 15 2020 |
Funding
This work was supported in part by the A+ project of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan; the Center for Light Energy Activated Redox Processes (LEAP), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) , Office of Science , Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award DE-SC0001059 (R.M.Y., M.R.W., and T.J.M.); AFOSR grant FA9550-18-1-0320 (A.F. and Y.C.); the Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center under National Science Foundation (NSF) grant DMR-1720139 (B.W. and G.W.); the Flexterra Corporation ; and the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN). Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated by the US DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by the US DOE under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357 . This work was supported in part by the A+ project of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan; the Center for Light Energy Activated Redox Processes (LEAP), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award DE-SC0001059 (R.M.Y. M.R.W. and T.J.M.); AFOSR grant FA9550-18-1-0320 (A.F. and Y.C.); the Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center under National Science Foundation (NSF) grant DMR-1720139 (B.W. and G.W.); the Flexterra Corporation; and the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN). Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated by the US DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by the US DOE under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. C.Y.L. P.H.-S.T. and Y.-M.C. conceived the idea. C.Y.L. designed the synthetic route of the polymers. C.Y.L. C.-H. Lee, and W.-L.L. synthesized the molecules and carried out the characterization. C.-H. Lee also synthesized the small molecular acceptor. The device and module-related design, processes, and characterization were supervised by Y.-M.C.; C.-C.L. N.-W.T. Y.-K.C. C.-H. Li, and H.-L.H. fabricated the devices under different conditions (coating method, processing atmosphere, molecular weight, solvent effect); C.-C.L. fabricated the modules and carried out the characterization. B.W. carried out TEM analysis. A.F. and T.J.M. supervised polymer film and blend characterization. Y.C. performed the SCLC, AFM, TGA, and DSC measurements and G.W. carried out GIWAXS analysis. Y.-C.H. collected the low light performance of devices. R.M.Y. and M.R.W. performed the transient absorption spectroscopy and analysis. Y.-M.C. and A.F. wrote the original version of the manuscript, and all authors discussed the results and contributed to the final production of the manuscript. Raynergy Tek Incorporation develops and sells organic semiconductors. However, C.-Y.L. C.-C.L. N.-W.T. C.-H. Lee, W.-L.L. Y.-K.C. C.-H. Li, H.-L.H. P.H.-S.T. and Y.-M.C. will not receive any compensation or advancement in career as outcomes of this publication.
Keywords
- high efficiency
- module
- non-fullerene
- organic photovoltaic
- solar cells
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Energy
