Issue 4, 2020

Visualizing morphological principles for efficient photocurrent generation in organic non-fullerene acceptor blends

Abstract

The efficiency of organic solar cells with donor polymers and non-fullerene acceptors depends on a complex morphology. Similar chemical and electronic structures impede generating in-depth insights in morphological details. We visualise molecular arrangements and the nanomorphology in PBDB-T:ITIC blends by correlating transmission electron micrographs and material distribution maps. Material phases are identified by machine learning on hyperspectral data from electron spectroscopic imaging. We observe a specific polymorph of ITIC after thermal annealing. During annealing, enhanced by the presence of additives, PBDB-T acts as nucleation site for ITIC due to strong π–π-interactions of the electron withdrawing groups of both molecules. This leads to efficient charge transport paths in ITIC phases with direct π–π-contact to PBDB-T at the interface. We conclude that π–π-stacking between donor and acceptor molecules facilitates charge carrier generation within mixed interface regions.

Graphical abstract: Visualizing morphological principles for efficient photocurrent generation in organic non-fullerene acceptor blends

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Nov 2019
Accepted
20 Feb 2020
First published
21 Feb 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Energy Environ. Sci., 2020,13, 1259-1268

Visualizing morphological principles for efficient photocurrent generation in organic non-fullerene acceptor blends

W. Köntges, P. Perkhun, J. Kammerer, R. Alkarsifi, U. Würfel, O. Margeat, C. Videlot-Ackermann, J. Simon, R. R. Schröder, J. Ackermann and M. Pfannmöller, Energy Environ. Sci., 2020, 13, 1259 DOI: 10.1039/C9EE03535D

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