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The electro-active third component (BID)-incorporated PM6-B10-based organic solar cell shows a high performance (PCE = 17.2%) and mechanical stretchability (COSavg = 11.4%), outperforming the PM6-based device (PCE = 15.8%, COSavg = 2.0%).

The damp-heat stability and photostability of solar cells were investigated depending on the ZnO fabrication methodology. Although the initial PCEs of the devices were similar, the ZnOs affected the solar cell performance after the aging process.

Systematic structural modulation with electron-withdrawing substituents was carried out to enhance the photovoltaic performances of quinoxaline-based polymers.

Solution-processed near-infrared (NIR)-absorbing organic solar cells (OSCs) have been explored worldwide because of their potential as donor:acceptor bulk heterojunction (BHJ) blends. In addition, NIR-absorbing OSCs have attracted attention as high specialty equipment in next-generation optoelectronic devices, such as semitransparent solar cells and NIR photodetectors, owing to their feasibility for real-time commercial application in industry. With the introduction of NIR-absorbing non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs), the value of OSCs has been increasing while organic donor materials capable of absorbing light in the NIR region have not been actively studied yet compared to NIR-absorbing acceptor materials. Therefore, we present an overall understanding of NIR donors.

The choice of the chlorine (Cl) atom as an electron-withdrawing substituent in conjugated polymers leads to a higher potential in the commercialization of polymer solar cells than its fluorine counterpart because of the versatility and cost-effectiveness of the chlorination process. In addition, the population and location of Cl substituents can significantly influence the photovoltaic characteristics of polymers. In this study, three chlorinated quinoxaline-based polymers were invented to examine the numerical and positioning effects of the Cl atom on their photovoltaic characteristics. The number of Cl substituents in the reference polymer, PBCl-Qx, was adjusted to three: two Cl atoms in the benzodithiophene-type D unit and one Cl atom in the quinoxaline-type A unit. Subsequently, two more Cl atoms were selectively introduced at the 4- and 5-positions of the alkylated thiophene moieties at the 2,3-positions of the quinoxaline moiety in PBCl-Qx to obtain the additional polymers PBCl-Qx4Cl and PBCl-Qx5Cl, respectively. The conventional PBCl-Qx4Cl device exhibited a better power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.95% as compared to those of PBCl-Qx (12.44%) and PBCl-Qx5Cl (11.82%) devices. The highest PCE of the device with PBCl-Qx4Cl was ascribed to an enhancement in the open-circuit voltage and fill factor induced by the deeper energy level of the highest occupied molecular orbital and the favorable morphological features in its blended film with Y6.

A straightforward competent strategy to attune the solid-state morphology, opto-electronic and photovoltaic properties of conjugated co-polymers has been studied by inserting different percentages of N,N-dimethylthiophene-3-carboxamide (TDM) monomeric units. The TDM percentage was varied from 20 to 100%, resulting in widening of the energy band gap. Fabrication of solar cells was performed with ITIC-4F as an electron acceptor to accomplish power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 7.8% for P4 (minimum TDM) and 0.85% for P1 (maximum TDM) under a thermal tempering process. A drastic drop in the PCE was noted with increasing percentage of TDM which agrees well with the optical, electronic, and morphological studies. Morphological analysis revealed high crystallinity for P4:ITIC-4F blend having minimum percentage of TDM units compared to its counterparts of higher TDM percentages. A sharp increase in π-π stacking is seen with reduced percentage of TDM units, leading to d spacing of ̴ 3.6 Å. Detailed investigations regarding the charge carrier transport in relation to the π-π stacking of the polymeric film are well implemented in this work. © 2021, Korean Society for Precision Engineering.

A new narrow bandgap non-fullerene electron acceptor was designed, synthesized, and characterized for near-infrared organic photovoltaics. This acceptor was compared to a structurally similar compound with systematically modified side chains, and a series of solar cells were fabricated, employing the common donor polymers PTB7-Th and PBDBT. The devices exhibited charge generation over a wide spectral range and power conversion efficiencies up to 8.1%. The non-geminate recombination dynamics were investigated and quantified via a combination of capacitance spectroscopy and transient open-circuit voltage decay measurements. The reduction of the bandgap results in increased bimolecular recombination losses, while solar cells composed of PBDBT were afflicted by stronger monomolecular, i.e. trap-assisted, recombination losses that ultimately caused the lower power conversion efficiencies of the respective devices. The latter observation could be correlated to less ordered blend film morphology.

In this article, two D–A-type quinoxaline-based polymers with multiple fluorine atoms, denoted by PB-QxF and PBF-QxF, were synthesized and tested for polymer solar cells (PSCs). Owing to the excellent optical, electrochemical, and charge transport properties of these polymers, impressive PCEs of 10.99 and 13.96% were achieved by the inverted-type lab-scale spin-coated devices based on PB-QxF and PBF-QxF, respectively, in the presence of a nonfullerene Y6 acceptor. In addition, to evaluate the feasibility of the process for mass production, a scalable roll-to-roll (R2R) slot-die coating process was attempted to fabricate PSCs on flexible substrates. Notably, the best PCE of 9.63% was obtained using an R2R processed additive-free PSC based on PBF-QxF, which is the highest value among all R2R processed PSCs. Moreover, the device with PBF-QxF exhibited good thickness tolerance to PCE up to 350 nm, which is one of the key requirements for R2R compatible materials.

Narrow bandgap n-type molecular semiconductors are relevant as key materials components for the fabrication near-infrared organic solar cells (OSCs) and organic photodetectors (OPDs). We thus desig...

We report the synthesis of composite interlayers by using alcohol-soluble polyfluorene-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes (ASP-wrapped SWNTs) and their application to the electron transport layer in efficient organic solar cells. The ASP enable the individual dispersion of SWNTs in solution. Impressively, ASP-wrapped SWNTs solutions are stable for 54 days, indicating very high dispersion stability. Using the ASP-wrapped SWNTs as a cathode interlayer on zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), 9.45% of power conversion efficiency (PCE) can be obtained in PTB7-th:PC71BM-based organic solar cells, which is mainly attributed to the improvement of the short circuit current. Performance enhancements of 18% and 17% were achieved compared to those of pure ZnO NPs and ASP on ZnO NPs, respectively. The improvement of solar cell performance originates from an increased internal quantum efficiency, balanced mobility between electrons and holes, and minimization of charge recombination.

The use of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) in organic solar cells has led to power conversion efficiencies as high as 18%1. However, organic solar cells are still less efficient than inorganic solar cells, which typically have power conversion efficiencies of more than 20%2. A key reason for this difference is that organic solar cells have low open-circuit voltages relative to their optical bandgaps3, owing to non-radiative recombination4. For organic solar cells to compete with inorganic solar cells in terms of efficiency, non-radiative loss pathways must be identified and suppressed. Here we show that in most organic solar cells that use NFAs, the majority of charge recombination under open-circuit conditions proceeds via the formation of non-emissive NFA triplet excitons; in the benchmark PM6:Y6 blend5, this fraction reaches 90%, reducing the open-circuit voltage by 60 mV. We prevent recombination via this non-radiative channel by engineering substantial hybridization between the NFA triplet excitons and the spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons. Modelling suggests that the rate of back charge transfer from spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons to molecular triplet excitons may be reduced by an order of magnitude, enabling re-dissociation of the spin-triplet charge-transfer exciton. We demonstrate NFA systems in which the formation of triplet excitons is suppressed. This work thus provides a design pathway for organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies of 20% or more. A substantial pathway for energy loss in organic solar cells may be suppressed by engineering hybridization between non-fullerene acceptor triplet excitons and spin-triplet charge transfer excitons.

The rational design of new high performance materials for organic photovoltaic (OPV) applications is largely inhibited by a lack of design rules for materials that have slow bimolecular charge recombination. Due to the complex device physics present in OPVs, rigorous and reliable measurement techniques for charge transport and charge recombination are needed to construct improved physical models that can guide materials development and discovery. Here, we develop a new technique called impedance-photocurrent device analysis (IPDA) to quantitatively characterize the competition between charge extraction and charge recombination under steady state operational conditions. The measurements are performed on actual lab scale solar cells, have mild equipment requirements, and can be integrated into normal device fabrication and testing workflows. We perform IPDA tests on a broad set of devices with varying polymer:fullerene blend chemistry and processing conditions. Results from the IPDA technique exhibit significantly improved reliability and self-consistency compared to the open-circuit voltage decay technique (OCVD). IPDA measurements also reveal a significant negative electric field dependence of the bimolecular recombination coefficient in high fill factor devices, a finding which is inaccessible to most other common techniques and indicates that many of these techniques may overestimate the value that is most relevant for describing device performance. Future work utilizing IPDA to build structure–property relationships for bimolecular recombination will lead to enhanced design rules for creating efficient OPVs that are suitable for commercialization.

A straightforward competent strategy to attune the solid-state morphology, opto-electronic and photovoltaic properties of conjugated co-polymers has been studied by inserting different percentages of N,N-dimethylthiophene-3-carboxamide (TDM) monomeric units. The TDM percentage was varied from 20 to 100%, resulting in widening of the energy band gap. Fabrication of solar cells was performed with ITIC-4F as an electron acceptor to accomplish power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 7.8% for P4 (minimum TDM) and 0.85% for P1 (maximum TDM) under a thermal tempering process. A drastic drop in the PCE was noted with increasing percentage of TDM which agrees well with the optical, electronic, and morphological studies. Morphological analysis revealed high crystallinity for P4:ITIC-4F blend having minimum percentage of TDM units compared to its counterparts of higher TDM percentages. A sharp increase in π-π stacking is seen with reduced percentage of TDM units, leading to d spacing of 3.6 A. Detailed investigations regarding the charge carrier transport in relation to the π-π stacking of the polymeric film are well implemented in this work.

We report the synthesis of composite interlayers using alcohol-soluble polyfluorene (ASP)-wrapped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and their application as electron-transport layers for efficient organic solar cells. The ASP enables the individual dispersion of SWNTs in solution. The ASP-wrapped SWNT solutions are stable for 54 days without any aggregation or precipitation, indicating their very high dispersion stability. Using the ASP-wrapped SWNTs as a cathode interlayer on zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), a power conversion efficiency of 9.45% is obtained in PTB7-th:PC

The electrical conductivity and doping stability of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) in ambient air are significantly improved using a gold chloride dopant, where the coexistence of AuCl4− and Au nanoparticles contributes to high electrical conductivity and doping stability at the same time. The uniformly formed Au nanoparticles induce a facile charge transfer in a thin film of AuCl3-doped P3HT as examined by the crystallography and transmission electron microscopy. P3HT doped with AuCl3 exhibits a high electrical conductivity of 207 S cm−1, a Seebeck coefficient of 73.9 μV K−1, and an optimized power factor of 110 μW m−1 K−2. Importantly, AuCl3-doped P3HT shows excellent air stability. After exposure to the ambient condition for 300 h, the optimized power factor of the AuCl3-doped P3HT maintains over 80% of the initial, whereas that of the FeCl3-doped P3HT decreases to only 20% of the original. Finally, a flexible and organic thermoelectric generator (OTEG) is fabricated using the AuCl3-doped P3HT by slot-die coating. The OTEG shows a relatively high open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 7.96 mV and a short-circuit current (Isc) of 0.93 μA, resulting in a power density of 18.5 nW cm−2 at a temperature gradient of 10 °C.

A series of semi-crystalline, wide band gap (WBG) photovoltaic polymers were synthesized with varying number and topology of fluorine substituents. To decrease intramolecular charge transfer and to modulate the resulting band gap of D–A type copolymers, electron-releasing alkoxy substituents were attached to electron-deficient benzothiadiazole (A) and electron-withdrawing fluorine atoms (0–4F) were substituted onto a 1,4-bis(thiophen-2-yl)benzene unit (D). Intra- and/or interchain noncovalent Coulombic interactions were also incorporated into the polymer backbone to promote planarity and crystalline intermolecular packing. The resulting optical band gap and the valence level were tuned to 1.93–2.15 eV and −5.37 to −5.67 eV, respectively, and strong interchain organization was observed by differential scanning calorimetry, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and grazing incidence X-ray scattering measurements. The number of fluorine atoms and their position significantly influenced the photophysical, morphological and optoelectronic properties of bulk heterojunctions (BHJs) with these polymers. BHJ photovoltaic devices showed a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 9.8% with an open-circuit voltage of 0.94–1.03 V. To our knowledge, this PCE is one of the highest values for fullerene-based single BHJ devices with WBG polymers having a band gap of over 1.90 eV. A tandem solar cell was also demonstrated successfully to show a PCE of 10.3% by combining a diketopyrrolopyrrole-based low band gap polymer.

To optimize the performance of polymer solar cells, various techniques have been developed and reported from various research fields. The introduction of processing additives in the polymer : PCBM bulk-heterojunction solution is one of the efficient strategies used to improve the cell performance. Although numerous solvents have been presented as processing additives, an appropriate processing additive is always different for each polymer solar cell. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that diphenyl ether (DPE) works as a widely beneficial processing additive, which provides high-performance polymer solar cells from all types of photovoltaic polymers. DPE acts like a theta solvent to photovoltaic polymers, helps to form ideal bulk-heterojunction film morphologies and suppresses bimolecular charge recombination. This study suggests an efficient way to optimize the performance of polymer solar cells using DPE regardless of the photovoltaic polymers used.

A series of acceptor1–donor–acceptor2 (A1–D–A2)-type copolymers was designed and synthesized using thiophene as an electron-rich unit and benzothiadiazole (BT) and benzotriazole (BTz) as electron-deficient moieties. A weaker acceptor, BTz, was incorporated as a solubilizing moiety with three tetradecyl (or tetradecyloxy) side chains, and a stronger acceptor, BT, was substituted with different numbers of fluorines to modulate the intramolecular charge transfer interaction and the resulting electronic structures. The similar molecular structures of BT and BTz did not disrupt the interchain organization significantly, and the absence of solubilizing alkyl substituents on the electron-rich thiophene did not increase the highest occupied molecular orbital of the resulting polymers. The polymers showed broad absorption in the range of 350–750 nm. Intra- and/or interchain non-covalent coulombic interactions (for example, dipole–dipole interactions via S···O, S···F) ensured a planar backbone and a semi-crystalline morphology in the film. Bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells were fabricated using blends of the polymers and phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). For a difluoro-BT containing polymer (BTzDT2FBT), a power conversion efficiency up to 7% was achieved with a short circuit current density of 14.64 mA cm−2, open circuit voltage of 0.75 V and fill factor of 0.64. Three types of A1–D–A2 conjugated polymers were synthesized based on thiophene as an electron-rich unit and two similarly structured electron-deficient moieties of benzothiadiazole (BT) and benzotriazole (BTz). The weaker acceptor, BTz, with three alkyl (or alkyloxy) substituents took on a solubilizing role without deteriorating the chain planarity. The absence of alkyl substituents on thiophene induced a deep valence band. Increasing the number of fluorine substituents on BT decreased the frontier orbitals and enhanced the interchain packing. The chain planarity and crystalline interchain organization were facilitated via intra- and/or interchain non-covalent S···O and S···F coulombic interactions. The best power conversion efficiency of 7% was measured for BTzDT2FBT:PC71BM.

The fabrication of perovskite film is crucial for achieving efficient perovskite photoelectric device. Herein, a simple and novel encapsulation growth method was applied to prepare high-quality quasi-2D perovskite films with advantages of compact and uniform morphology, high crystallinity with lower defect density, enhanced photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and optimized multidimensional domain distribution and crystallite orientation for perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs). The encapsulation growth method was found to decrease the proportion of the low-dimensional (n = 1,2,3) domains while increasing the high-dimensional domains content with randomly-oriented crystals, which simultaneously enhanced the overall energy landscape effect and charges transport within the quasi-2D perovskite films, and the PLQY of the quasi-2D perovskites significantly improved from 9.2% to 60.0%. Finally, an efficient flexible green PeLEDs was obtained with a high luminous efficiency (LE) of 47.1 cd/A, and a luminance brightness of 8300 cd/m2, and an efficient sky-blue PeLEDs was also achieved with record EQE of 12.8% by using encapsulation growth method. This encapsulation growth method provides a promising strategy for boosting the efficiency of quasi-2D PeLEDs.

Semitransparent organic solar cells (STOSCs) are a technology that combines the benefits of visible light transparency and light-to-electrical energy conversion. One of the greatest opportunities for STOSCs is their integration into windows and skylights in energy-sustainable buildings. For this application, the aesthetic aspects of solar cells may be as important as their electrical performance. Here, our strategy enables to achieve high-quality and colorful STOSCs using Fabry-Perot etalon-type electrodes. These electrodes are composed of an antimony oxide (Sb2O3) cavity layer and two thin Ag mirrors. These dichroic tri-layer structures perform two functions as top conducting electrodes and color filters. These dual-function electrodes were applied to photovoltaic devices and displayed vivid colors, natural transparency, and good performance as compared to devices that use conventional metal electrodes. Furthermore, to achieve saturated colors and low photocurrent losses, active layer materials were selected such that their transmittance peaks matched the transmittance maxima of the electrodes. These strategies for colorful STOSCs result in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to 13.3% and maximum transmittances (TMAX) of 24.6% in blue devices, PCEs of up to 9.71% and TMAX of 35.4% in green devices, and PCEs of up to 7.63% and TMAX of 34.7% in red devices.

We demonstrate morphological and optical engineering by using processing additives and optical spacers for polymer solar cells. Among various processing additives, introduction of diphenyl ether (DPE) into the active layer results in the smoothest surface roughness with uniform and well-distributed donor/acceptor domains, and the device with DPE shows the highest device efficiency of 10.22% due to enhanced charge collection efficiency and minimized recombination loss. Additional ZnO optical spacers on the active layer controls the distribution of the electric field in the whole device and enhances the light absorption within the active layer, thereby improving device efficiency up to 10.81%.

The detailed characterization of a dialkoxyphenylene-difluorobenzothiadiazole based conjugated polymer poly[(2,5-bis(2-hexyldecyloxy)phenylene)-alt-(5,6-difluoro-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole)] (PPDT2FBT) is reported. PPDT2FBT closely tracks theoretical photocurrent production while maintaining a high fill factor in remarkably thick films. In order to understand the properties that enable PPDT2FBT to function with thick active layers, the effect of film thickness on the material properties and device parameters was carefully studied and compared to three benchmark polymers. Optical modeling, grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, transient photoconductivity, and extensive device work were carried out and have clarified the key structural features and properties that allow such thick active layers to function efficiently. The unique behavior of thick PPDT2FBT films arises from high vertical carrier mobility, an isotropic morphology with strong, vertical π–π stacking, and a suitable energy band structure. These physical characteristics allow efficient photocurrent extraction, internal quantum efficiencies near 100% and power conversion efficiencies over 9% from exceptionally thick active layers in both conventional and inverted architectures. The ability of PPDT2FBT to function efficiently in thick cells allows devices to fully attenuate incident sunlight while providing a pathway to defect-free film processing over large areas, constituting a major advancement toward commercially viable organic solar cells.

A series of difluoroquinoxaline–thiophene based reduced band gap polymers was designed and synthesized by considering non-covalent coulombic interactions in a polymeric main chain. The insertion of different numbers of thiophene moieties allows for the adjustment of the absorption range, frontier energy levels, crystalline self-organization, film morphology and the resulting photovoltaic properties. A thick blend film of poly(thiophene-alt-(2,3-bis(3,4-bis(octyloxy)phenyl)-6,7-difluoroquinoxaline)) (PDFQx-T):[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) showed a rough, inhomogeneous and largely phase-separated surface morphology compared to a typical film with ∼100 nm thickness. A similar trend was observed in the surface morphology of a poly(2,2′-bithiophene-alt-(2,3-bis(3,4-bis(octyloxy)phenyl)-6,7-difluoroquinoxaline)) (PDFQx-2T) blend film, showing deteriorated photovoltaic properties with increasing film thickness. In contrast, poly(2,2′:5′,2′′-terthiophene-alt-2,3-bis(3,4-bis(octyloxy)phenyl)-6,7-difluoroquinoxaline) (PDFQx-3T) had a similar blend film morphology for both thick and thin active layers, showing a homogeneous and smooth morphology with a face-on orientation and tight π–π stacking (d-spacing = 3.6 A). The optimized photovoltaic cell based on PDFQx-3T : PC71BM achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8% with an open-circuit voltage of 0.74 V, a short-circuit current of 17.19 mA cm−2 and a fill factor of 0.63 at an active layer thickness of ∼270 nm. It is still a challenge to develop photovoltaic polymers which allow efficient charge transport and extraction at a device thickness of ∼300 nm. Fine-adjustment of intra- and interchain interactions must be considered carefully to achieve high device properties for thick devices without deterioration in the blend morphology and charge recombination. This high PCE at an active layer thickness of ∼300 nm may suggest great potential for the mass production of printed polymer solar cells via industrial solution processes.

Percolation networks of silver nanowires (AgNWs) are commonly used as transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) for a variety of optoelectronic applications, but there have been no attempts to precisely control the percolation networks of AgNWs that critically affect the performances of TCEs. Here, we introduce a capillary printing technique to precisely control the NW alignment and the percolation behavior of AgNW networks. Notably, partially aligned AgNW networks exhibit a greatly lower percolation threshold, which leads to the substantial improvement of optical transmittance (96.7%) at a similar sheet resistance (19.5 Ω sq(-1)) as compared to random AgNW networks (92.9%, 20 Ω sq(-1)). Polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) using aligned AgNW electrodes show a 30% enhanced maximum luminance (33068 cd m(-2)) compared to that with random AgNWs and a high luminance efficiency (14.25 cd A(-1)), which is the highest value reported so far using indium-free transparent electrodes for fluorescent PLEDs. In addition, polymer solar cells (PSCs) using aligned AgNW electrodes exhibit a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.57%, the highest value ever reported to date for PSCs using AgNW electrodes.

Four different kinds of photovoltaic polymers were synthesized by controlling the intrachain noncovalent coulomb interactions through the incorporation of alkoxy- or alkylthio-substituted phenylene, 4,7-di(furan-2-yl)benzothiadiazole, and 4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzothiadiazole as a building block. Fine modulation of the interplay of dipole–dipole, H-bond, and chalcogen–chalcogen interactions (O···S, O···H, S···S, S···F, etc.) along the polymeric backbone influenced the chain planarity, interchain organization, film morphology, and electrical and photovoltaic properties significantly. By replacing the alkoxy substituents with alkylthio groups, the torsional angle increased (136–168°) due to the absence of an O···S attractive coulomb interaction (and/or increased S···S steric hindrance), enhancing the amorphous nature with hindered interchain packing. The alkoxy-substituted polymers exhibited nanofibrillar structures, showing strong interlamellar scattering peaks up to (300) with tight face-on π–π stacking i...

We herein report a facile synthetic method for the preparation of gold-core, silver-shell nanoparticles (Au@Ag NPs) with tunable surface plasmon resonance (SPR) using the double hydrophilic block copolymer (DHBC), poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(acrylic acid) (PEO-b-PAA), as a template (Au@Ag@DHBC NPs), and the utilization of their unique optical properties in polymer solar cells (PSCs). It is demonstrated that two different functionalities of DHBC facilitate the formation of the respective Au-core and Ag-shell NPs. Interestingly, the isolated core–shell NPs in solution are found to be transformed into coupled NPs that ultimately exhibit the transition of intrinsic plasmonic properties to a wide range in the visible spectrum. Furthermore, plasmonic Au@Ag@DHBC NPs are effectively integrated into the active layer of PSCs, which remarkably enhance the power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 9.0% (16% enhancement) because of the strong plasmonic effect of the coupled NPs and the thin polymeric layer surroundi...

Small-bandgap polymer solar cells (PSCs) with a thick bulk heterojunction film of 340 nm exhibit high power conversion efficiencies of 9.40% resulting from high short-circuit current density (JSC ) of 20.07 mA cm(-2) and fill factor of 0.70. This remarkable efficiency is attributed to maximized light absorption by the thick active layer and minimized recombination by the optimized lateral and vertical morphology through the processing additive.

We investigate the effect of a thin PbS quantum dot (QD) layer on the performance of hybrid quantum-dot-organic solar cells (QD-OSCs). The PbS QD layer is able to function as a photosensitizing layer to improve short circuit current density (JSC) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) by exploiting solar flux in the near infrared region up to 1100 nm. The increase in JSC is well represented by changes observed in the external quantum efficiency of devices with and without the PbS QD layer, including the region of the first exciton transition where only the PbS QD layer absorbs. Remarkably, enhanced performance was observed in QD-OSCs consisting of just a 13 nm thick PbS QD layer and 150 nm PTB7:PC71BM layer, exhibiting a JSC of 17.0 mA cm � 2 , and PCE of 8.30% (8.58% for champion device) compared to reference devices without PbS QD which produced a JSC of 15.4 mA cm � 2 and PCE of 7.56%.

A series of benzodithiophene-thiophene-based alternating copolymers were synthesized with different side-chains, and their photovoltaic characteristics were examined. The choice of solubilizing side-chains influences significantly the chain conformation, frontier orbital energy levels, intermolecular organization, and the resulting optical, morphological, and photovoltaic properties. The incorporation of an e-withdrawing carbonyl group in the side-chain decreased the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO, ca. −5.4 eV) level and improved the chain planarity through intrachain hydrogen bonding. The shortest π–π stacking distance (3.72 A) was also measured for the alkylcarbonyl-substituted BDTCOT:PC71BM blended film by two dimensional grazing incidence X-ray scattering. With compared to other polymers, the BDTCOT:PC71BM device showed a substantially improved open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current density, leading to a 4.66% power conversion efficiency. The side-chains need to be designed to be multifunctional to induce a deep HOMO level and chain planarity (for interchain ordering) as well as good solution processability. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015, 53, 854–862

Although polymer solar cells (PSCs) have received a tremendous amount of attention in recent years, a number of criteria must be met in order for them to be suitable as practical and commercially feasible power sources, including high performance, good air stability and inexpensive manufacturing. In this contribution, we determine the optimal top electrode for practical PSC fabrication by investigating the influence of the electrode material on the optical properties and performance of PSC devices. The optical properties of eight metals were considered, out of which three metal electrodes (aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), gold (Au)) with the best optical properties were used to prepare inverted PSC devices comprising a blended polymer thieno[3,4-b]thiophene/benzodithiophene (PTB7) and [6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). Among the photovoltaic parameters, the short circuit current density (JSC) was most strongly affected by the optical properties of the top electrode. In the results of the experiment, the J(SC) of the Al and Ag electrode devices was found to be approximately 13% (13.4 → 15.1 mA cm(-2)) higher than the Au electrode device due to the significant parasitic absorption of light by Au at wavelengths below 600 nm. In contrast, Al and Ag electrodes have high reflectance throughout the visible spectrum, which leads to high J(SC). Ag electrodes have relatively good stability to ambient exposure, maintaining over 96% of the original efficiency after 170 hours; this stability is comparable to Au. These data lead to the conclusion that Ag is the optimal top electrode material for use in inverted devices.

Single crystal silicon nanoparticles (Si-NPs) of 20 nm were produced via laser pyrolysis with a virtually complete conversion from SiH4 to Si-NPs. SF6 was used as the photosensitizer to transfer laser beam energy to silicon precursors, dramatically enhancing crystallinity of Si-NPs and their production efficiency. By using their well-developed crystalline structure, the directional volume expansion of Si-NPs was confirmed during lithiation. Lithiation/delithiation kinetics of our Si-NPs was superior to that of their amorphous counterparts due to the footprinted Li+ pathways formed during amorphization.