TY - JOUR
T1 - Recycling the Energy of Indoor Light
T2 - Highly Efficient Organic Photovoltaics via a Ternary Strategy
AU - Lee, Jong Hoon
AU - Khasbaatar, Azzaya
AU - Jones, Austin L.
AU - Hwang, Changhyun
AU - Kim, Mijung
AU - Strzalka, Joseph
AU - Gann, Eliot
AU - Lee, Minjoo L.
AU - Reynolds, John R.
AU - Diao, Ying
N1 - This work was primarily supported by the Office of Naval Research under grant numbers N00014-19-1-2146 (Y.D.) and N00014-22-1-2202 (Y.D.) and by the ONR Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative award no. N00014-21-1-2144 (J.R.R.). C.H. and Y.D. acknowledge partial support by the Molecular Maker Lab Institute, an NSF AI Institute under Grant No. 20-19897. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility, operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 and the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704. The research also used facilities of the Materials Research Laboratory Central Research Facilities, University of Illinois. Extraordinary facility operations were supported in part by the DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of DOE national laboratories focused on the response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act. Note that certain commercial equipment, instruments, or materials are identified in this paper to foster understanding. Such identification does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the materials or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose.
PY - 2023/6/9
Y1 - 2023/6/9
N2 - A ternary approach in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is simple and reliable to effectively tune the optical, electrical, and morphological properties of the photoactive layer for high efficiency as well as long-term stability under 1 sun. However, there have been few papers reporting the benefits of ternary systems for recycling the energy of indoor light, which has narrow emission spectra and weak illumination compared to outdoor light. In this study, by using two compatible donor polymers (PM7 and PM7 D1) with slightly different band gaps and similar chemical structures, we demonstrate a simultaneous modulation of light absorption and molecular packing under ambient conditions, which resulted in efficient indoor OPVs exhibiting power conversion efficiency (PCE) over 20% under 1000 lx of warm white light-emitting diode (2900 K). From morphological analysis, we infer that PM7 serves to seed the nucleation of PM7 D1 in the ternary blend, templating its crystallization and alignment along the PM7 backbone. Such templating effect leads to increased domain spacing and relative degree of crystallinity (rDoC) compared to those of each binary system. We further show that higher rDoC helps suppress both bimolecular and trap-assisted recombination of photogenerated charges in the ternary devices. As a result, the complementary absorption and synergistic molecular assembly of the two donor polymers enhance the short-circuit current density as to increase the average PCEs from 9.6 to 10.3% under 1 sun and from 18.7 to 20.0% under 1000 lx. We envision that our strategy of incorporating both a planar and a flexible donor polymer with similar chemical structures can be generally applicable to attain a high-performance ternary OPV under both 1 sun and indoor light.
AB - A ternary approach in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is simple and reliable to effectively tune the optical, electrical, and morphological properties of the photoactive layer for high efficiency as well as long-term stability under 1 sun. However, there have been few papers reporting the benefits of ternary systems for recycling the energy of indoor light, which has narrow emission spectra and weak illumination compared to outdoor light. In this study, by using two compatible donor polymers (PM7 and PM7 D1) with slightly different band gaps and similar chemical structures, we demonstrate a simultaneous modulation of light absorption and molecular packing under ambient conditions, which resulted in efficient indoor OPVs exhibiting power conversion efficiency (PCE) over 20% under 1000 lx of warm white light-emitting diode (2900 K). From morphological analysis, we infer that PM7 serves to seed the nucleation of PM7 D1 in the ternary blend, templating its crystallization and alignment along the PM7 backbone. Such templating effect leads to increased domain spacing and relative degree of crystallinity (rDoC) compared to those of each binary system. We further show that higher rDoC helps suppress both bimolecular and trap-assisted recombination of photogenerated charges in the ternary devices. As a result, the complementary absorption and synergistic molecular assembly of the two donor polymers enhance the short-circuit current density as to increase the average PCEs from 9.6 to 10.3% under 1 sun and from 18.7 to 20.0% under 1000 lx. We envision that our strategy of incorporating both a planar and a flexible donor polymer with similar chemical structures can be generally applicable to attain a high-performance ternary OPV under both 1 sun and indoor light.
KW - indoor photovoltaics
KW - interfacial free energy
KW - polymer compatibility
KW - ternary organic photovoltaics
KW - ternary polymer blend
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U2 - 10.1021/acsapm.3c00408
DO - 10.1021/acsapm.3c00408
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161002899
SN - 2637-6105
VL - 5
SP - 4199
EP - 4209
JO - ACS Applied Polymer Materials
JF - ACS Applied Polymer Materials
IS - 6
ER -