Intrinsic efficiency limits in low-bandgap non-fullerene acceptor organic solar cells
Type
ArticleAuthors
Karuthedath, Safakath
Gorenflot, Julien

Firdaus, Yuliar

Chaturvedi, Neha

De Castro, Catherine S. P.

Harrison, George T.
Khan, Jafar Iqbal
Markina, Anastasia
Albalawi, Ahmed
Peña, Top Archie Dela

Liu, Wenlan
Liang, Ru-Ze

Sharma, Anirudh

Paleti, Sri Harish Kumar

Zhang, Weimin
Lin, Yuanbao
Alarousu, Erkki
Anjum, Dalaver H.

Beaujuge, Pierre
De Wolf, Stefaan

McCulloch, Iain

Anthopoulos, Thomas D.

Baran, Derya
Andrienko, Denis

Laquai, Frédéric

KAUST Department
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) DivisionKAUST Solar Center (KSC)
KAUST Solar Center, Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE), Materials Science and Engineering Program (MSE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center (ANPERC)
Material Science and Engineering Program
Material Science and Engineering
Imaging and Characterization Core Lab
Electron Microscopy
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Chemical Science Program
KAUST Grant Number
CRGOSR-2018-CARF/CCF-3079
Date
2020-10-23Online Publication Date
2020-10-23Print Publication Date
2021-03Embargo End Date
2021-04-26Submitted Date
2019-09-21Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/665682
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
In bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs) both the electron affinity (EA) and ionization energy (IE) offsets at the donor–acceptor interface should equally control exciton dissociation. Here, we demonstrate that in low-bandgap non-fullerene acceptor (NFA) BHJs ultrafast donor-to-acceptor energy transfer precedes hole transfer from the acceptor to the donor and thus renders the EA offset virtually unimportant. Moreover, sizeable bulk IE offsets of about 0.5 eV are needed for efficient charge transfer and high internal quantum efficiencies, since energy level bending at the donor–NFA interface caused by the acceptors’ quadrupole moments prevents efficient exciton-to-charge-transfer state conversion at low IE offsets. The same bending, however, is the origin of the barrier-less charge transfer state to free charge conversion. Our results provide a comprehensive picture of the photophysics of NFA-based blends, and show that sizeable bulk IE offsets are essential to design efficient BHJ OSCs based on low-bandgap NFAs.Citation
Karuthedath, S., Gorenflot, J., Firdaus, Y., Chaturvedi, N., De Castro, C. S. P., Harrison, G. T., … Laquai, F. (2020). Intrinsic efficiency limits in low-bandgap non-fullerene acceptor organic solar cells. Nature Materials. doi:10.1038/s41563-020-00835-xSponsors
This publication is based on work supported by the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under award nos. OSR-2018-CARF/CCF-3079 and OSR-CRG2018-3746. D.A. acknowledges funding from the BMBF grant InterPhase and MESOMERIE (grant nos. FKZ 13N13661, FKZ 13N13656) and the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program ‘Widening materials models’ under grant agreement no. 646259 (MOSTOPHOS). D.A. also acknowledges the KAUST PSE Division for hosting his sabbatical in the framework of the Division’s Visiting Faculty program. A.M. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 844655 (SMOLAC). We thank L. Sinatra of KAUST and Quantum Solutions LLC for assisting with the PLQY measurements. G.T.H acknowledges K. Graham and A. Amassian (and previous group members including M. Tietze and G.O.N. Ndjawa) for having designed and installed and worked on the IPES setup. In particular, G.T.H. acknowledges K. Graham’s kind assistance during the reconfiguration and optimization of the IPES setup, as well as U. Sharif for technical assistance.Publisher
Springer NatureJournal
Nature MaterialsAdditional Links
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-020-00835-xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/s41563-020-00835-x