Low-cost and high-performance poly(thienylene vinylene) derivative donor for efficient versatile organic photovoltaic cells

Abstract

The utilization of donor materials with complex structures obviously increases the costs of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. Therefore, low-cost and high-performance are two issues that must be considered when designing polymer donors for the preparations of large-area OPV cells. Here, a poly(thienylene vinylene) derivative, named PTVT-BT was reported. PTVT-BT has a very simple completely non-fused molecular structure. PTVT-BT shows planar molecular structure and obvious solution aggregation effect. Besides, PTVT-BT demonstrates a high hole mobility up to the magnitude of 10-2 cm-2 V-1 s-1. The external quantum efficiency of electroluminescence of PTVT-BT is 7 × 10-3. As a result, the OPV cell based on PTVT-BT:eC9 demonstrates a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.31%, which is the highest value among the poly(thienylene vinylene)- and polythiophene-based OPV cells. The tandem OPV cell with PTVT-BT as the donor of the sub-cell yields an outstanding PCE of 18.49%. Besides, the indoor OPV cell based on PTVT-BT:BTA3 exhibits a PCE of 27.30% under a light-emitting diode (LED) illumination of 1000 lux (2700 K). This study indicates that PTV-derivative is a kind of promising material for the future OPV industrialization.