Issue 4, 2021

Synergy strategy to the flexible alkyl and chloride side-chain engineered quinoxaline-based D–A conjugated polymers for efficient non-fullerene polymer solar cells

Abstract

With the meteoric progress on acceptor materials for non-fullerene polymer solar cells (NF-PSCs), exploring efficient and matched copolymer donor materials has become a key issue. Herein, to achieve a balance among open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current density (JSC) and fill factor (FF), we have developed two medium band-gap (MBG) donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymers, namely, PBDTTS-TClQx and PBDTTS-TClSQx, by combining chlorine atoms and flexible alkyl (R) or alkylthio (SR) side-chains engineered quinoxaline (Qx) as the acceptor unit, as well as based on a well-known alkylthio-thienyl substituted benzodithiophene (BDTTS) donor unit. These copolymers were successfully synthesized and finally facilely employed as photovoltaic donor materials for NF-PSCs. After blending with the MeIC acceptor, the PBDTTS-TClQx:MeIC blend film exhibited more balanced electron/hole mobility h/μe), better efficient exciton dissociation and nice morphology in comparison with the PBDTTS-TClSQx:MeIC blend film. Encouragingly, chlorination and appropriate side-chains engineering Qx can result in a higher VOC, thus leading to enhancement in JSC and FF parameters. More excitingly, the PBDTTS-TClQx:MeIC-based PSCs exhibit a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.59% higher than that of the device based on the PBDTTS-TClSQx:MeIC blend that had a PCE of 11.10%. The higher performance arises from the enhancement in current density (JSC) of 17.07 mA cm−2 and fill factor (FF) of 77.2%. The impressive FF of up to 77.2% is the highest reported for Qx-type copolymers-based NF solar cells to date. These results disclose that chlorination and suitable flexible side-chains are promising strategies to improve the photovoltaic performance of copolymers.

Graphical abstract: Synergy strategy to the flexible alkyl and chloride side-chain engineered quinoxaline-based D–A conjugated polymers for efficient non-fullerene polymer solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
15 Oct 2020
Accepted
30 Nov 2020
First published
09 Dec 2020

Mater. Chem. Front., 2021,5, 1906-1916

Synergy strategy to the flexible alkyl and chloride side-chain engineered quinoxaline-based D–A conjugated polymers for efficient non-fullerene polymer solar cells

L. Zeng, R. Ma, Q. Zhang, T. Liu, Y. Xiao, K. Zhang, S. Cui, W. Zhu, X. Lu, H. Yan and Y. Liu, Mater. Chem. Front., 2021, 5, 1906 DOI: 10.1039/D0QM00826E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements