In situ printing gives insight into the evolution of morphology and optical properties during slot-die coating of active layers for application in organic solar cells and enables an upscaling and optimization of the thin film deposition process and the photovoltaic performance. Active layers based on the conjugated polymer donor with benzodithiophene units PBDB-T-2Cl and the non-fullerene small-molecule acceptor IT-4F are printed with a slot-die coating technique and probed in situ with grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering, grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, and ultraviolet/visible light spectroscopy. The formation of the morphology is followed from the liquid state to the final dry film for different printing conditions (at 25 and 35 °C), and five regimes of film formation are determined. The morphological changes are correlated to changing optical properties. During the film formation, crystallization of the non-fullerene small-molecule acceptor takes place and polymer domains with sizes of some tens of nanometers emerge. A red shift of the optical band gap and a broadening of the absorbance spectrum occurs, which allow for exploiting the sun spectrum more efficiently and are expected to have a favorable effect on the solar cell performance.
Keywords: UV/vis spectroscopy; grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering; grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering; in situ printing; slot-die coating.