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100 cm2 Organic Photovoltaic Cells with 23% Efficiency under Indoor Illumination

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Abstract

The application of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells to drive off-grid microelectronic devices under indoor light has attracted broad attention. As organic semiconductors intrinsically have less ordered intermolecular packing than inorganic materials, the relatively larger energetic disorder is one of the main results that limit the photovoltaic efficiency of the OPV cells at low carrier density. Here, we optimize the alkyl chains of non-fullerene acceptors to get suppressed energetic disorder. We find the optimal acceptor DTz-R1 with the shortest alkyl chain has the strongest crystalline property and lowest energetic disorder. As a result, over 26% efficiency is recorded for the 1 cm2 OPV cells under a light-emitting diode illumination of 500 lux. We also fabricate a 100 cm2 cell device and get a PCE of 23.0%, which is an outstanding value for large-area OPV cells. These results suggest that modulation of the energetic disorder is of great importance for further improving the efficiency of OPV cells, especially for indoor applications.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52003275, 22075301, 22122905 and 52120105005). J. H. Hou was supported by the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDPB13) and the Bureau of International Cooperation Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 121111KYSB20200043).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yong Cui, Hui-Feng Yao, Ye Xu, Peng-Qing Bi, Tao Zhang, Ling Hong & Jian-Hui Hou

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Ye Xu, Tao Zhang & Jian-Hui Hou

  3. CAS key laboratory of nanosystem and hierarchical fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jian-Qi Zhang & Zhi-Xiang Wei

  4. School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China

    Zhi-Hao Chen & Xiao-Tao Hao

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  1. Yong Cui
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Correspondence to Hui-Feng Yao or Jian-Hui Hou.

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Cui, Y., Yao, HF., Xu, Y. et al. 100 cm2 Organic Photovoltaic Cells with 23% Efficiency under Indoor Illumination. Chin J Polym Sci 40, 979–988 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-022-2761-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-022-2761-x

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