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Vol. 14 (2022)

Effects of Flexible Conjugation-Break Spacers of Non-Conjugated Polymer Acceptors on Photovoltaic and Mechanical Properties of All-Polymer Solar Cells

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-022-00884-8
Qiaonan Chen
Siyuan Laboratory, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Vacuum Coating Technologies and New Energy Materials, Department of Physics, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, People’s Republic of China
Yung Hee Han
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Leandro R. Franco
Department of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University, 65188 Karlstad, Sweden
Cleber F. N. Marchiori
Department of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University, 65188 Karlstad, Sweden
Zewdneh Genene
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE‑412 96, Göteborg, Sweden
C. Moyses Araujo
Department of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University, 65188 Karlstad, Sweden
Jin‑Woo Lee
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Tan Ngoc‑Lan Phan
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Jingnan Wu
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE‑412 96, Göteborg, Sweden
Donghong Yu
Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Dong Jun Kim
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Taek‑Soo Kim
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Lintao Hou
Siyuan Laboratory, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Vacuum Coating Technologies and New Energy Materials, Department of Physics, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, People’s Republic of China
Bumjoon J. Kim
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
Ergang Wang
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE‑412 96, Göteborg, Sweden

Corresponding Author: Ergang Wang

ergang@chalmers.se

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 14 (2022), Article Number: 164

Abstract

All-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) possess attractive merits including superior thermal stability and mechanical flexibility for large-area roll-to-roll processing. Introducing flexible conjugation-break spacers (FCBSs) into backbones of polymer donor (PD) or polymer acceptor (PA) has been demonstrated as an efficient approach to enhance both the photovoltaic (PV) and mechanical properties of the all-PSCs. However, length dependency of FCBS on certain all-PSC related properties has not been systematically explored. In this regard, we report a series of new non-conjugated PAs by incorporating FCBS with various lengths (2, 4, and 8 carbon atoms in thioalkyl segments). Unlike common studies on so-called side-chain engineering, where longer side chains would lead to better solubility of those resulting polymers, in this work, we observe that the solubilities and the resulting photovoltaic/mechanical properties are optimized by a proper FCBS length (i.e., C2) in PA named PYTS-C2. Its all-PSC achieves a high efficiency of 11.37%, and excellent mechanical robustness with a crack onset strain of 12.39%, significantly superior to those of the other PAs. These results firstly demonstrate the effects of FCBS lengths on the PV performance and mechanical properties of the all-PSCs, providing an effective strategy to fine-tune the structures of PAs for highly efficient and mechanically robust PSCs.


Highlights:


1 A series of non-conjugated acceptor polymers with flexible conjugation-break spacers (FCBSs) of different lengths were synthesized.
2 The effect of FCBSs length on solubility of the acceptor polymers, and their photovoltaic and mechanical properties in all-polymer solar cells were explored.
3 This work provides useful guidelines for the design of semiconducting polymers by introducing FCBS with proper length, which can giantly improved properties that are not possible to be achieved by the state-of-the-art fully conjugated polymers.

Keywords

All-polymer solar cells Flexible conjugation-break spacers Mechanical robustness Polymer acceptors Stretchability
Chen, Qiaonan, Yung Hee Han, Leandro R. Franco, Cleber F. N. Marchiori, Zewdneh Genene, C. Moyses Araujo, Jin‑Woo Lee, Tan Ngoc‑Lan Phan, Jingnan Wu, Donghong Yu, Dong Jun Kim, Taek‑Soo Kim, Lintao Hou, Bumjoon J. Kim, and Ergang Wang. 2022. “Effects of Flexible Conjugation-Break Spacers of Non-Conjugated Polymer Acceptors on Photovoltaic and Mechanical Properties of All-Polymer Solar Cells”. Nano-Micro Letters 14 (August):164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-022-00884-8.
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