All-Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Conjugated Polymer Containing Siloxane-Functionalized Side Chains with Efficiency over 10

Baobing Fan; Lei Ying; Peng Zhu; Feilong Pan; Feng Liu; Junwu Chen; Fei Huang; Yong Cao

doi:10.1002/adma.201703906

All-Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Conjugated Polymer Containing Siloxane-Functionalized Side Chains with Efficiency over 10

Adv Mater. 2017 Dec;29(47). doi: 10.1002/adma.201703906. Epub 2017 Nov 7.

Authors

Baobing Fan¹, Lei Ying¹, Peng Zhu¹, Feilong Pan¹, Feng Liu², Junwu Chen¹, Fei Huang¹, Yong Cao¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, P. R. China.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, P. R. China.

PMID: 29112320
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201703906

Abstract

A novel wide-bandgap conjugated copolymer based on an imide-functionalized benzotriazole building block containing a siloxane-terminated side-chain is developed. This copolymer is successfully used to fabricate highly efficient all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) processed at room temperature with the green-solvent 2-methyl-tetrahydrofuran. When paired with a naphthalene diimide-based polymer electron-acceptor, the all-PSC exhibits a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.1%, which is the highest value so far reported for an all-PSC. Of particular interest is that the PCE remains 9.4% after thermal annealing at 80 °C for 24 h. The resulting high efficiency is attributed to a combination of high and balanced bulky charge carrier mobility, favorable face-on orientation, and high crystallinity. These observations indicate that the resulting copolymer can be a promising candidate toward high-performance all-PSCs for practical applications.

Keywords: all-polymer solar cells; face-on orientation; green solvent; siloxane-functionalized side chains.