Employing PCBTDPP as an Efficient Donor Polymer for High Performance Ternary Polymer Solar Cells

Binrui Xu; Gopalan Saianand; V A L Roy; Qiquan Qiao; Khan Mamun Reza; Shin-Won Kang

doi:10.3390/polym11091423

Employing PCBTDPP as an Efficient Donor Polymer for High Performance Ternary Polymer Solar Cells

Polymers (Basel). 2019 Aug 29;11(9):1423. doi: 10.3390/polym11091423.

Authors

Binrui Xu¹, Gopalan Saianand², V A L Roy³, Qiquan Qiao⁴, Khan Mamun Reza⁴, Shin-Won Kang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Electronics Engineering, College of IT Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea.
² Global Innovative Center for Advanced Nanomaterials, School of Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon 999077, Hong Kong, China.
⁴ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 570007, USA.
⁵ School of Electronics Engineering, College of IT Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea. swkang@knu.ac.kr.

Abstract

A compatible low-bandgap donor polymer (poly[N-90-heptadecanyl-2,7carbazole-alt-3,6-bis(thiophen-5-yl)-2,5-dioctyl-2,5-dihydropyrrolo [3,4] pyrrole-1,4-dione], PCBTDPP) was judicially introduced into the archetypal poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PC₆₁BM) photoactive system to fabricate highly efficient ternary based bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells (PSCs). The PCBTDPP ternary-based PSC with optimal loading (0.2 wt.%) displayed outstanding performance with a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.28% as compared to the PCE (4.67%) for P3HT:PC₆₁BM-based PSC (reference). The improved PCE for PCBTDPP ternary-based PSC can be mainly attributed to the incorporation of PCBTDPP into P3HT:PC₆₁BM that beneficially improved the optical, morphological, electronic, and photovoltaic (PV) performance. This work instills a rational strategy for identifying components (donor/acceptor (D/A) molecules) with complementary beneficial properties toward fabricating efficient ternary PSCs.

Keywords: PCBTDPP; low-bandgap; polymer solar cells; ternary.

Abstract

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