Issue 23, 2023

Enhancing the Marangoni flow by inner side chain engineering in nonfullerene acceptors for reproducible blade coating-processed organic solar cell manufacturing

Abstract

The industrial-scale, uniform film production of active layers is a prerequisite for high-performance, reproducible organic solar cells (OSCs), becoming a significant challenge. Blade coating, one of the most suitable protocols for industrial-scale OSC manufacturing, can be significantly affected by evaporation-driven convective flows (e.g., capillary and Marangoni flows), which directly influence film uniformity. Here, we present in-depth studies on how convective flows in blade coating-processed OSC fabrication depend on the inner side chain lengths of nonfullerene acceptors (L8-i-EB, L8-i-EH, and L8-i-BO). By analyzing the device performance in nine different regions in a blade-coated substrate, we find that the degree of variations in power conversion efficiency ranges from 15.61% to 16.85% (standard deviation (σ) of 0.38%) for the L8-i-EB-based device, 15.31% to 17.20% (σ of 0.57%) for the L8-i-EH-based device, and 13.92% to 16.66% (σ of 0.97%) for the L8-i-BO-based device. This demonstrates that compared with the others, the L8-i-EB-based device with a shorter inner side chain enables higher reproductivity in blade coating-processed OSC fabrication, attributed to its superior film uniformity induced by the enhanced inward-directional Marangoni flow while counteracting the capillary flow. This study highlights the importance of the Marangoni flow effect and its contribution to realizing reproducible blade coating-processed OSCs.

Graphical abstract: Enhancing the Marangoni flow by inner side chain engineering in nonfullerene acceptors for reproducible blade coating-processed organic solar cell manufacturing

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Mar 2023
Accepted
11 May 2023
First published
12 May 2023

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023,11, 12185-12193

Enhancing the Marangoni flow by inner side chain engineering in nonfullerene acceptors for reproducible blade coating-processed organic solar cell manufacturing

G. Park, Y. Cho, S. Jeong, J. Park, S. Yoon and C. Yang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023, 11, 12185 DOI: 10.1039/D3TA01806G

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