Fast-Growth Polymer: Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Thin Films for Efficient Organic Photovoltaics

Daewon Chung, Chandran Balamurugan, Byoungwook Park, Hyeonryul Lee, Ilhyeon Cho, Chaerin Yoon, Soyeon Park, Yong Ryun Jo, Joonhyeon Jeon, Soonil Hong, Sooncheol Kwon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) system that uses a (Formula presented.) -conjugated polymer as an electron donor, and a fullerene derivative as an electron acceptor, is widely used in organic solar cells (OSCs) to facilitate efficient charge separation and extraction. However, the conventional BHJ system still suffers from unwanted phase segregation caused by the existence of significant differences in surface energy between the two BHJ components and the charge extraction layer during film formation. In the present work, we demonstrate a sophisticated control of fast film-growth kinetics that can be used to achieve a uniform distribution of donor and acceptor materials in the BHJ layer of OSCs without undesirable phase separation. Our approach involves depositing the BHJ solution onto a spinning substrate, thus inducing rapid evaporation of the solvent during BHJ film formation. The fast-growth process prevents the fullerene derivative from migrating toward the charge extraction layer, thereby enabling a homogeneous distribution of the fullerene derivative within the BHJ film. The OSCs based on the fast-growth BHJ thin film are found to exhibit substantial increases in JSC, fill factor, and a PCE up to 11.27 mA/cm2, 66%, and 4.68%, respectively; this last value represents a remarkable 17% increase in PCE compared to that of conventional OSCs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number502
JournalNanomaterials
Volume14
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2024

Keywords

  • P3HT (Poly-3-hexylthiophene)
  • PCBM ([6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester)
  • bulk heterojunction
  • homogeneous morphology
  • organic solar cells

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