Boosting the photovoltaic thermal stability of fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells through charge transfer interactions

Carr Hoi Yi Ho, Huanyang Cao, Yong Lu, Tsz-Ki Lau, Sin Hang Cheung, Ho-Wa Li, Hang Yin, Ka Lok Chiu, Lik-Kuen Ma, Yuanhang Cheng, Sai-Wing Tsang, Xinhui Lu, Shu Kong So*, Beng S. Ong*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
38 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Fullerene-based bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ-OSCs) represent one of the current state-of-the-art organic solar cells. Nonetheless, most of these devices still suffer from adverse performance degradation due to thermally induced morphology changes of active layers. We herein demonstrate that the photovoltaic performance stability of BHJ-OSCs can be profoundly enhanced with an appositely functionalized 9-fluorenylidene malononitrile. The latter, through charge transfer (CT) interactions with a donor polymer, enables the formation of a "frozen" 3-dimensional mesh-like donor polymer matrix, which effectively restrains free movement of embedded fullerene molecules and suppresses their otherwise uncontrolled aggregation. 9-Fluorenylidene malononitrile derivatives with multiple CT interaction sites are particularly effective as preservation of a power conversion efficiency of over 90% under severe thermal stress has been accomplished. The generality of this novel strategy has been affirmed with several common donor polymers, manifesting it to be hitherto the most efficient approach to stabilized fullerene-based BHJ-OSCs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)23662-23670
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry A
Volume5
Issue number45
Early online date7 Oct 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2017

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Chemistry(all)
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Materials Science(all)

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