Issue

Vol. 17 (2025)

Dual-Donor-Induced Crystallinity Modulation Enables 19.23% Efficiency Organic Solar Cells

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01576-1
Anhai Liang
Center On Nanoenergy Research, Institute of Science and Technology for Carbon Peak & Neutrality, School of Physical Science & Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China
Yuqing Sun
Center On Nanoenergy Research, Institute of Science and Technology for Carbon Peak & Neutrality, School of Physical Science & Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China
Sein Chung
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, South Korea
Jiyeong Shin
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, South Korea
Kangbo Sun
College of New Materials and New Energies, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen 518118, People’s Republic of China
Chaofeng Zhu
Center On Nanoenergy Research, Institute of Science and Technology for Carbon Peak & Neutrality, School of Physical Science & Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China
Jingjing Zhao
Center On Nanoenergy Research, Institute of Science and Technology for Carbon Peak & Neutrality, School of Physical Science & Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China
Zhenmin Zhao
Center On Nanoenergy Research, Institute of Science and Technology for Carbon Peak & Neutrality, School of Physical Science & Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China
Yufei Zhong
Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Fabrication and Application of Advanced Photovoltaic Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, NingboTech University, Ningbo 315100, People’s Republic of China
Guangye Zhang
College of New Materials and New Energies, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen 518118, People’s Republic of China
Kilwon Cho
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, South Korea
Zhipeng Kan
Center On Nanoenergy Research, Institute of Science and Technology for Carbon Peak & Neutrality, School of Physical Science & Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Zhipeng Kan

kanzhipeng@gxu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 17 (2025), Article Number: 72

Abstract

Trap-assisted charge recombination is one of the primary limitations of restricting the performance of organic solar cells. However, effectively reducing the presence of traps in the photoactive layer remains challenging. Herein, wide bandgap polymer donor PTzBI-dF is demonstrated as an effective modulator for enhancing the crystallinity of the bulk heterojunction active layers composed of D18 derivatives blended with Y6, leading to dense and ordered molecular packings, and thus, improves photoluminescence quenching properties. As a result, the photovoltaic devices exhibit reduced trap-assisted charge recombination losses, achieving an optimized power conversion efficiency of over 19%. Besides the efficiency enhancement, the devices comprised of PTzBI-dF as a third component simultaneously attain decreased current leakage, improved charge carrier mobilities, and suppressed bimolecular charge recombination, leading to reduced energy losses. The advanced crystalline structures induced by PTzBI-dF and its characteristics, such as well-aligned energy level, and complementary absorption spectra, are ascribed to the promising performance improvements. Our findings suggest that donor phase engineering is a feasible approach to tuning the molecular packings in the active layer, providing guidelines for designing effective morphology modulators for high-performance organic solar cells.


Highlights:
1 By modulating the crystalline properties of the active layer with dual donors, the efficiency of organic solar cells reaches 19.23%.
2 The introduction of PTzBI-dF suppresses the accumulation of traps and charge recombination, allowing ternary devices to maintain 82% of their initial power conversion efficiency (PCE) after illumination for 800 h.
3 The dual-donor strategy for modulating the crystallinity of the active layer is applicable to a variety of Y6 derivatives, and the increase in PCE exceeds 1%.

Keywords

Trap-assisted charge recombination Photoluminescence Miscibility Current leakage Power conversion efficiency
Liang, Anhai, Yuqing Sun, Sein Chung, Jiyeong Shin, Kangbo Sun, Chaofeng Zhu, Jingjing Zhao, Zhenmin Zhao, Yufei Zhong, Guangye Zhang, Kilwon Cho, and Zhipeng Kan. 2024. “Dual-Donor-Induced Crystallinity Modulation Enables 19.23% Efficiency Organic Solar Cells”. Nano-Micro Letters 17 (November):72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01576-1.
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