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Reducing energy loss via tuning energy levels of polymer acceptors for efficient all-polymer solar cells

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Abstract

The open-circuit voltage (Voc) of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) is typically lower than 0.9 V even for the most efficient ones. Large energy loss is the main reason for limiting Voc and efficiency of all-PSCs. Herein, through materials design using electron deficient building blocks based on bithiophene imides, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels of polymer acceptors can be effectively tuned, which resulted in a reduced energy loss induced by charge generation and recombination loss due to the suppressed charge-transfer (CT) state absorption. Despite a negligible driving force, all-PSC based on the polymer donor and acceptor combination with well-aligned energy levels exhibited efficient charge transfer and achieved an external quantum efficiency over 10% while maintaining a large Voc of 1.02 V, leading to a 9.21% efficiency. Through various spectroscopy approaches, this work sheds light on the mechanism of energy loss in all-PSCs, which paves an avenue to achieving efficient all-PSCs with large Voc and drives the further development of all-PSCs.

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Acknowledgements

Guo X is grateful to the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (JCYJ20170817105905899, JCYJ20180504165709042). Sun H thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21801124). Liu B thanks China Scholarship Council Fund (201906010074). This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21903017), and the Center for Computational Science and Engineering of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). We thank Ziang Wu and Han Young Woo at Korea University for performing GIWAXS measurements, thank Dr. Yinhua Yang at the Materials Characterization and Preparation Center, SUSTech for NMR measurement.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Huiliang Sun, Bin Liu, Yujie Zhang, Mengyao Su, Kun Yang, Jianhua Chen & Xugang Guo

  2. Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University, Linköping, SE-58183, Sweden

    Jianwei Yu & Feng Gao

  3. eFlexPV Limited, Flat/RM B, 12/F, Hang Seng Causeway Bay BLDG, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, China

    Guangye Zhang

  4. Division of Chemical Physics, Lund University, Box 124, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Xianshao Zou

  5. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, SE-412 96, Sweden

    Qunping Fan

  6. School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Bin Liu

  7. School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Wei Zhang

  8. Department of Chemistry and Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration & Reconstruction, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Huiliang Sun & He Yan

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  1. Huiliang Sun
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  2. Bin Liu
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Correspondence to Xugang Guo.

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Sun, H., Liu, B., Yu, J. et al. Reducing energy loss via tuning energy levels of polymer acceptors for efficient all-polymer solar cells. Sci. China Chem. 63, 1785–1792 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9826-4

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