Enabling high-performance, centimeter-scale organic solar cells through three-dimensional charge transport

Baobing Fan; Wenkai Zhong; Jinxiang Chen; Francis Lin; Yue Wu; Qunping Fan; Hin-Lap Yip; Alex K.-Y. Jen

doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.100761

Enabling high-performance, centimeter-scale organic solar cells through three-dimensional charge transport

Baobing Fan, Wenkai Zhong, Jinxiang Chen, Francis Lin, Yue Wu, Qunping Fan, Hin-Lap Yip, Alex K.-Y. Jen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

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Abstract

Organic solar cells (OSCs) suffer from severe upscaling loss due to the inevitable formation of inhomogeneities and the intrinsically low charge mobilities of organic materials limiting the charge extraction efficiency, especially in the situation where cell width reaches centimeter scale. Here, we report the introduction of a nematic liquid crystal donor, BTR-Cl, into a typical non-fullerene blending system of PM6:BTP-eC9. The participation of BTR-Cl contributes to a significantly improved crystallinity and ordering of the host components and facilitates efficient three-dimensional charge transport in the active layer. Simultaneously improved fill factor and current density are thus achieved in BTR-Cl-doped OSCs, corresponding to a superior efficiency of 18.31%. More importantly, a high efficiency of 16.88% along with a robust fill factor of 73.4% is retained when enlarging the effective device area from 0.034 to 1.01 cm², highlighting the importance of three-dimensional charge transport in reducing the upscaling loss of OSCs.

Original language	English
Article number	100761
Journal	Cell Reports Physical Science
Volume	3
Issue number	2
Online published	8 Feb 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.100761
Publication status	Published - 16 Feb 2022

Funding

A. K.-Y. J. thanks the sponsorship of the Lee Shau-Kee Chair Professor (Materials Science). This work was supported by the APRC Grant of the City University of Hong Kong (9380086), Innovation and Technology Fund (ITS/497/18FP, GHP/021/18SZ), the Office of Naval Research (N00014-20-1-2191), the GRF grant (11307621) and the CRF grant (C6023-19GF) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21905103), Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2019B030302007), Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials (2019B121205002).

Research Keywords

centimeter scale
liquid crystal donor
organic solar cell
three-dimensional charge transport
upscaling loss

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Enabling high-performance, centimeter-scale organic solar cells through three-dimensional charge transport",

abstract = "Organic solar cells (OSCs) suffer from severe upscaling loss due to the inevitable formation of inhomogeneities and the intrinsically low charge mobilities of organic materials limiting the charge extraction efficiency, especially in the situation where cell width reaches centimeter scale. Here, we report the introduction of a nematic liquid crystal donor, BTR-Cl, into a typical non-fullerene blending system of PM6:BTP-eC9. The participation of BTR-Cl contributes to a significantly improved crystallinity and ordering of the host components and facilitates efficient three-dimensional charge transport in the active layer. Simultaneously improved fill factor and current density are thus achieved in BTR-Cl-doped OSCs, corresponding to a superior efficiency of 18.31%. More importantly, a high efficiency of 16.88% along with a robust fill factor of 73.4% is retained when enlarging the effective device area from 0.034 to 1.01 cm2, highlighting the importance of three-dimensional charge transport in reducing the upscaling loss of OSCs.",

keywords = "centimeter scale, liquid crystal donor, organic solar cell, three-dimensional charge transport, upscaling loss",

author = "Baobing Fan and Wenkai Zhong and Jinxiang Chen and Francis Lin and Yue Wu and Qunping Fan and Hin-Lap Yip and Jen, {Alex K.-Y.}",

year = "2022",

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T1 - Enabling high-performance, centimeter-scale organic solar cells through three-dimensional charge transport

AU - Fan, Baobing

AU - Zhong, Wenkai

AU - Chen, Jinxiang

AU - Lin, Francis

AU - Wu, Yue

AU - Fan, Qunping

AU - Yip, Hin-Lap

AU - Jen, Alex K.-Y.

PY - 2022/2/16

Y1 - 2022/2/16

N2 - Organic solar cells (OSCs) suffer from severe upscaling loss due to the inevitable formation of inhomogeneities and the intrinsically low charge mobilities of organic materials limiting the charge extraction efficiency, especially in the situation where cell width reaches centimeter scale. Here, we report the introduction of a nematic liquid crystal donor, BTR-Cl, into a typical non-fullerene blending system of PM6:BTP-eC9. The participation of BTR-Cl contributes to a significantly improved crystallinity and ordering of the host components and facilitates efficient three-dimensional charge transport in the active layer. Simultaneously improved fill factor and current density are thus achieved in BTR-Cl-doped OSCs, corresponding to a superior efficiency of 18.31%. More importantly, a high efficiency of 16.88% along with a robust fill factor of 73.4% is retained when enlarging the effective device area from 0.034 to 1.01 cm2, highlighting the importance of three-dimensional charge transport in reducing the upscaling loss of OSCs.

AB - Organic solar cells (OSCs) suffer from severe upscaling loss due to the inevitable formation of inhomogeneities and the intrinsically low charge mobilities of organic materials limiting the charge extraction efficiency, especially in the situation where cell width reaches centimeter scale. Here, we report the introduction of a nematic liquid crystal donor, BTR-Cl, into a typical non-fullerene blending system of PM6:BTP-eC9. The participation of BTR-Cl contributes to a significantly improved crystallinity and ordering of the host components and facilitates efficient three-dimensional charge transport in the active layer. Simultaneously improved fill factor and current density are thus achieved in BTR-Cl-doped OSCs, corresponding to a superior efficiency of 18.31%. More importantly, a high efficiency of 16.88% along with a robust fill factor of 73.4% is retained when enlarging the effective device area from 0.034 to 1.01 cm2, highlighting the importance of three-dimensional charge transport in reducing the upscaling loss of OSCs.

KW - centimeter scale

KW - liquid crystal donor

KW - organic solar cell

KW - three-dimensional charge transport

KW - upscaling loss

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DO - 10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.100761

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 2666-3864

VL - 3

JO - Cell Reports Physical Science

JF - Cell Reports Physical Science

IS - 2

M1 - 100761

ER -

Enabling high-performance, centimeter-scale organic solar cells through three-dimensional charge transport

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Funding

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

RGC Funding Information

UN SDGs

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GRF: Rational Design and Synthesis of a New Class of Non-Fullerene Acceptors and Matched Donor Polymers for Highly Efficient Organic Photovoltaics

ITF: Rational Design of Efficient and Stable Transporting Materials for High Efficiency Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells and Large-Scale Fabrication

ITF: Development of Highly Efficient Perovskite/Polymer Hybrid Solar Cells

Cite this

Enabling high-performance, centimeter-scale organic solar cells through three-dimensional charge transport

Abstract

Funding

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

RGC Funding Information

UN SDGs

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

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Projects

GRF: Rational Design and Synthesis of a New Class of Non-Fullerene Acceptors and Matched Donor Polymers for Highly Efficient Organic Photovoltaics

ITF: Rational Design of Efficient and Stable Transporting Materials for High Efficiency Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells and Large-Scale Fabrication

ITF: Development of Highly Efficient Perovskite/Polymer Hybrid Solar Cells

Cite this