Active Layer Morphology Engineering of All-polymer Solar Cells by Systematically Tuning Molecular Weights of Polymer Donors/Acceptors

Abstract

In all-polymer solar cells (APSCs), number-average molecular weights (Mn) of polymer donors and polymer acceptors play an important role in active layer morphology and photovoltaic performance. In this manuscript, based on a series of APSCs with power conversion efficiency of approaching 10%, we study the effect of Mn of both polymer donor and polymer acceptor on active layer morphology and photovoltaic performance of APSCs. We select poly[4-(5-(4,8-bis(5-((2-butyloctyl)thio)thiophen-2-yl)-6-methylbenzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophen-2-yl)thiophen-2-yl)-5,6-difluoro-2-(2-hexyldecyl)-7-(5-methylthiophen-2-yl)-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole] (CD1) as the polymer donor and poly[4-(5-(5,10-bis(2-dodecylhexadecyl)-4,4,9,9-tetrafluuoro-7-methyl-4,5,9,10-tetrahydro3a,5,8,10-tetraaza-4,9-diborapyren-2-yl)thiophen-2-yl)-7-(5-methylthiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole] (PBN-14) as the polymer acceptor. The Mn of polymer donor CD1 are 14.0, 35.5 and 56.1 kg mol-1, respectively. The Mn of polymer acceptor PBN-14 are 32.7, 72.4 and 103.4 kg mol-1, respectively. To get the desired biscontinueous fibrous network morphololgy of the polymer donor/polymer acceptor blends, at least one polymer should have high or medium Mn. Moreover, when the Mn of polymer acceptor is high, the active layer morphology and APSC device performance are insensitive to the Mn of polymer donor. The optimal APSC device performance is obtained when the Mn of both the polymer donor and the polymer acceptor are medium. These results provide a comprehensive and deep understanding on the interplay and the effect of Mn of polymer donors and polymer acceptors in high-performance APSCs.