Achieving efficient and stabilized organic solar cells by precisely controlling the proportion of copolymerized units in electron-rich polymers

Abstract

A series of random polymers based on the donor polymer PM6 were designed from the perspective of regulating the surface electrostatic potential (ESP) distribution of the polymers and applied in organic solar cells (OSCs). Random polymers with different ESPs were obtained by introducing structural units of polymer PM6 into the polymer structure as the third unit. The simulation results showed that the random polymers feature a wider electron-donating region after the introduction of BDT units, indicating a more efficient charge generation probability. Benefiting from the optimized morphology of the active layer and the stronger interaction between the donor and the acceptor in the active layer, the device exhibited the best charge transport efficiency and lower charge recombination after the introduction of 5% BDT units, and a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.76% was achieved. In addition, OSC devices based on random polymers incorporating 5% BDT units exhibit excellent device stability. In contrast, the devices based on random polymers after the introduction of BDD units showed a much lower PCE of around 13% due to the inferior charge generation and charge transport. This work not only provides a new perspective for the molecular design of efficient random polymers, but also demonstrates that the OSC devices based on random polymers can still achieve better stability.