Quenching to the Percolation Threshold in Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Summary The general lack of knowing the quench depth and the convolution with key kinetic factors has confounded deeper understanding of the respective importance of these factors in the morphology development of organic solar cells. Here, we determine the quench depth of a high-efficiency system and delineate the need to kinetically quench the mixed domains to a composition close to the percolation threshold. Importantly, the ability to achieve such a quench is very sensitive to structural parameters in polymer solar cells (PSCs) of the polymer PBDB-TF. Only the highest-molecular-weight polymer is able of earlier liquid-solid transition to “lock in” a high-performing PSC morphology with a composition above the miscibility limit and with an efficiency of over 13%. Systems with deep quench depths are therefore sensitive to molecular weight and the kinetic factors of the casting, likely impacting fabrication yield and reliability. They also need to be vitrified for stable performance.