Roll-to-Roll Printed Large-Area All-Polymer Solar Cells with 5% Efficiency Based on a Low Crystallinity Conjugated Polymer Blend

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Xiaodan Gu - , Stanford University, University of Southern Mississippi (Author)
  • Yan Zhou - , Stanford University (Author)
  • Kevin Gu - , Stanford University (Author)
  • Tadanori Kurosawa - , Stanford University (Author)
  • Yikun Guo - , Peking University (Author)
  • Yunke Li - , Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Author)
  • Haoran Lin - , Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Author)
  • Bob C. Schroeder - , Stanford University, Queen Mary University of London (Author)
  • Hongping Yan - , Stanford University (Author)
  • Francisco Molina-Lopez - , Stanford University (Author)
  • Christopher J. Tassone - , Stanford University (Author)
  • Cheng Wang - , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Author)
  • Stefan C.B. Mannsfeld - , Chair of Organic Devices (cfaed) (Author)
  • He Yan - , Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Author)
  • Dahui Zhao - , Peking University (Author)
  • Michael F. Toney - , Stanford University (Author)
  • Zhenan Bao - , Stanford University (Author)

Abstract

The challenge of continuous printing in high-efficiency large-area organic solar cells is a key limiting factor for their widespread adoption. A materials design concept for achieving large-area, solution-coated all-polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells with stable phase separation morphology between the donor and acceptor is presented. The key concept lies in inhibiting strong crystallization of donor and acceptor polymers, thus forming intermixed, low crystallinity, and mostly amorphous blends. Based on experiments using donors and acceptors with different degree of crystallinity, the results show that microphase separated donor and acceptor domain sizes are inversely proportional to the crystallinity of the conjugated polymers. This methodology of using low crystallinity donors and acceptors has the added benefit of forming a consistent and robust morphology that is insensitive to different processing conditions, allowing one to easily scale up the printing process from a small-scale solution shearing coater to a large-scale continuous roll-to-roll (R2R) printer. Large-area all-polymer solar cells are continuously roll-to-roll slot die printed with power conversion efficiencies of 5%, with combined cell area up to 10 cm2. This is among the highest efficiencies realized with R2R-coated active layer organic materials on flexible substrate.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number1602742
JournalAdvanced energy materials
Volume7
Issue number14
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jul 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

Keywords

Research priority areas of TU Dresden

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • all-polymer solar cells, in situ X-ray scattering, organic solar cells, roll-to-roll processing, X-ray diffraction