Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T-2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

Zeinab Hamid; Andrew Wadsworth; Elham Rezasoltani; Sarah Holliday; Mohammed Azzouzi; Marios Neophytou; Anne A.Y. Guilbert; Yifan Dong; Mark S. Little; Subhrangsu Mukherjee; Andrew A. Herzing; Helen Bristow; R. Joseph Kline; Dean M. DeLongchamp; Artem A. Bakulin; James R. Durrant; Jenny Nelson; Iain McCulloch

doi:10.1002/aenm.201903248

Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T-2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

Zeinab Hamid, Andrew Wadsworth, Elham Rezasoltani, Sarah Holliday, Mohammed Azzouzi, Marios Neophytou, Anne A.Y. Guilbert, Yifan Dong, Mark S. Little, Subhrangsu Mukherjee, Andrew A. Herzing, Helen Bristow, R. Joseph Kline, Dean M. DeLongchamp, Artem A. Bakulin, James R. Durrant, Jenny Nelson, Iain McCulloch

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25 Scopus citations

Abstract

The temperature-dependent aggregation behavior of PffBT4T polymers used in organic solar cells plays a critical role in the formation of a favorable morphology in fullerene-based devices. However, there is little investigation into the impact of donor/acceptor ratio on morphology tuning, especially for nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). Herein, the influence of composition on morphology is reported for blends of PffBT4T-2DT with two NFAs, O-IDTBR and O-IDFBR. The monotectic phase behavior inferred from differential scanning calorimetry provides qualitative insight into the interplay between solid–liquid and liquid–liquid demixing. Transient absorption spectroscopy suggests that geminate recombination dominates charge decay and that the decay rate is insensitive to composition, corroborated by negligible changes in open-circuit voltage. Exciton lifetimes are also insensitive to composition, which is attributed to the signal being dominated by acceptor excitons which are formed and decay in domains of similar size and purity irrespective of composition. A hierarchical morphology is observed, where the composition dependence of size scales and scattering intensity from resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS) is dominated by variations in volume fractions of polymer/polymer-rich domains. Results suggest an optimal morphology where polymer crystallite size and connectivity are balanced, ensuring a high probability of hole extraction via such domains.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	1903248
Journal	Advanced Energy Materials
Volume	10
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201903248
State	Published - Feb 1 2020
Externally published	Yes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
General Materials Science

Keywords

calorimetry
morphology
nonfullerene
organic photovoltaics
phase behavior

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10.1002/aenm.201903248

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Hamid, Z., Wadsworth, A., Rezasoltani, E., Holliday, S., Azzouzi, M., Neophytou, M., Guilbert, A. A. Y., Dong, Y., Little, M. S., Mukherjee, S., Herzing, A. A., Bristow, H., Kline, R. J., DeLongchamp, D. M., Bakulin, A. A., Durrant, J. R., Nelson, J., & McCulloch, I. (2020). Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T-2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 10(8), Article 1903248. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201903248

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title = "Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T-2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells",

abstract = "The temperature-dependent aggregation behavior of PffBT4T polymers used in organic solar cells plays a critical role in the formation of a favorable morphology in fullerene-based devices. However, there is little investigation into the impact of donor/acceptor ratio on morphology tuning, especially for nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). Herein, the influence of composition on morphology is reported for blends of PffBT4T-2DT with two NFAs, O-IDTBR and O-IDFBR. The monotectic phase behavior inferred from differential scanning calorimetry provides qualitative insight into the interplay between solid–liquid and liquid–liquid demixing. Transient absorption spectroscopy suggests that geminate recombination dominates charge decay and that the decay rate is insensitive to composition, corroborated by negligible changes in open-circuit voltage. Exciton lifetimes are also insensitive to composition, which is attributed to the signal being dominated by acceptor excitons which are formed and decay in domains of similar size and purity irrespective of composition. A hierarchical morphology is observed, where the composition dependence of size scales and scattering intensity from resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS) is dominated by variations in volume fractions of polymer/polymer-rich domains. Results suggest an optimal morphology where polymer crystallite size and connectivity are balanced, ensuring a high probability of hole extraction via such domains.",

keywords = "calorimetry, morphology, nonfullerene, organic photovoltaics, phase behavior",

author = "Zeinab Hamid and Andrew Wadsworth and Elham Rezasoltani and Sarah Holliday and Mohammed Azzouzi and Marios Neophytou and Guilbert, {Anne A.Y.} and Yifan Dong and Little, {Mark S.} and Subhrangsu Mukherjee and Herzing, {Andrew A.} and Helen Bristow and Kline, {R. Joseph} and DeLongchamp, {Dean M.} and Bakulin, {Artem A.} and Durrant, {James R.} and Jenny Nelson and Iain McCulloch",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim",

year = "2020",

month = feb,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1002/aenm.201903248",

language = "English (US)",

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Hamid, Z, Wadsworth, A, Rezasoltani, E, Holliday, S, Azzouzi, M, Neophytou, M, Guilbert, AAY, Dong, Y, Little, MS, Mukherjee, S, Herzing, AA, Bristow, H, Kline, RJ, DeLongchamp, DM, Bakulin, AA, Durrant, JR, Nelson, J & McCulloch, I 2020, 'Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T-2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells', Advanced Energy Materials, vol. 10, no. 8, 1903248. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201903248

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T1 - Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T-2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

AU - Hamid, Zeinab

AU - Wadsworth, Andrew

AU - Rezasoltani, Elham

AU - Holliday, Sarah

AU - Azzouzi, Mohammed

AU - Neophytou, Marios

AU - Guilbert, Anne A.Y.

AU - Dong, Yifan

AU - Little, Mark S.

AU - Mukherjee, Subhrangsu

AU - Herzing, Andrew A.

AU - Bristow, Helen

AU - Kline, R. Joseph

AU - DeLongchamp, Dean M.

AU - Bakulin, Artem A.

AU - Durrant, James R.

AU - Nelson, Jenny

AU - McCulloch, Iain

PY - 2020/2/1

Y1 - 2020/2/1

N2 - The temperature-dependent aggregation behavior of PffBT4T polymers used in organic solar cells plays a critical role in the formation of a favorable morphology in fullerene-based devices. However, there is little investigation into the impact of donor/acceptor ratio on morphology tuning, especially for nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). Herein, the influence of composition on morphology is reported for blends of PffBT4T-2DT with two NFAs, O-IDTBR and O-IDFBR. The monotectic phase behavior inferred from differential scanning calorimetry provides qualitative insight into the interplay between solid–liquid and liquid–liquid demixing. Transient absorption spectroscopy suggests that geminate recombination dominates charge decay and that the decay rate is insensitive to composition, corroborated by negligible changes in open-circuit voltage. Exciton lifetimes are also insensitive to composition, which is attributed to the signal being dominated by acceptor excitons which are formed and decay in domains of similar size and purity irrespective of composition. A hierarchical morphology is observed, where the composition dependence of size scales and scattering intensity from resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS) is dominated by variations in volume fractions of polymer/polymer-rich domains. Results suggest an optimal morphology where polymer crystallite size and connectivity are balanced, ensuring a high probability of hole extraction via such domains.

AB - The temperature-dependent aggregation behavior of PffBT4T polymers used in organic solar cells plays a critical role in the formation of a favorable morphology in fullerene-based devices. However, there is little investigation into the impact of donor/acceptor ratio on morphology tuning, especially for nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). Herein, the influence of composition on morphology is reported for blends of PffBT4T-2DT with two NFAs, O-IDTBR and O-IDFBR. The monotectic phase behavior inferred from differential scanning calorimetry provides qualitative insight into the interplay between solid–liquid and liquid–liquid demixing. Transient absorption spectroscopy suggests that geminate recombination dominates charge decay and that the decay rate is insensitive to composition, corroborated by negligible changes in open-circuit voltage. Exciton lifetimes are also insensitive to composition, which is attributed to the signal being dominated by acceptor excitons which are formed and decay in domains of similar size and purity irrespective of composition. A hierarchical morphology is observed, where the composition dependence of size scales and scattering intensity from resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS) is dominated by variations in volume fractions of polymer/polymer-rich domains. Results suggest an optimal morphology where polymer crystallite size and connectivity are balanced, ensuring a high probability of hole extraction via such domains.

KW - calorimetry

KW - morphology

KW - nonfullerene

KW - organic photovoltaics

KW - phase behavior

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JO - Advanced Energy Materials

JF - Advanced Energy Materials

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ER -

Influence of Polymer Aggregation and Liquid Immiscibility on Morphology Tuning by Varying Composition in PffBT4T-2DT/Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

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