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8.30% Efficiency P3HT-based all-polymer solar cells enabled by a miscible polymer acceptor with high energy levels and efficient electron transport

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Abstract

P3HT stands out from numerous polymer donors owing to the merits of low cost and high scalability of synthesis. However, the photovoltaic performance of P3HT-based blends lags significantly behind the state-of-the-art systems, especially for all-polymer solar cells (APSCs) that generally show efficiency of around 3%–4% due to the lack of matched polymer acceptors. Herein, a polymer acceptor, named IDTBTC8-CN, was designed and synthesized with indacenodithiophene (IDT) and mono-cyano (CN)-substituted benzothiadiazole (BT-CN) as building blocks. Introducing a CN group endowed the polymer with decreased bandgap, and apparent n-type charge transport character despite the relatively high energy levels. Additionally, IDTBTC8-CN showed largely improved miscibility with P3HT, compared with that of BT-based control polymer IDTBTC8. The high miscibility between P3HT and IDTBTC8-CN as well as the amorphous aggregation behavior of IDTBTC8-CN enabled a broad manipulation room for the blend film to acquire favorable morphology. Eventually, a champion efficiency of 8.30% was achieved, in sharp contrast to that of the IDTBTC8-based system (1.21%). Such efficiency is a new record for P3HT-based APSCs reported so far. Moreover, P3HT:IDTBTC8-CN blend film also exhibited excellent mechanical robustness. This study implies the guidance of molecular design of the polymer acceptors and morphology control for P3HT-based APSCs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22075200, 52121002) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The authors appreciate the beamline 1W1A of Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF) for supporting the GIWAXS characterizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Ziqi Liang, Jiangting He, Bin Zhao, Mengyuan Gao, Long Ye, Miaomiao Li & Yanhou Geng

  2. Joint School of National University of Singapore and Tianjin University, International Campus of Tianjin University, Binhai New City, Fuzhou, 350207, China

    Yanhou Geng

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin, 300072, China

    Long Ye & Yanhou Geng

  4. Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yu Chen

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  1. Ziqi Liang
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  2. Jiangting He
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  3. Bin Zhao
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  4. Mengyuan Gao
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  5. Yu Chen
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  7. Miaomiao Li
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Correspondence to Miaomiao Li or Yanhou Geng.

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8.30% Efficiency P3HT-based all-polymer solar cells enabled by a miscible polymer acceptor with high energy levels and efficient electron transport

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Liang, Z., He, J., Zhao, B. et al. 8.30% Efficiency P3HT-based all-polymer solar cells enabled by a miscible polymer acceptor with high energy levels and efficient electron transport. Sci. China Chem. 66, 216–227 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-022-1386-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-022-1386-1

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