Highly efficient and stable inverted polymer solar cells integrated with a cross-linked fullerene material as an interlayer.

A novel PCBM-based n-type material, [6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric styryl dendron ester (PCBSD), functionalized with a dendron containing two styryl groups as thermal cross-linkers, has been rationally designed and easily synthesized. In situ cross-linking of PCBSD was carried out by heating at a low temperature of 160 degrees C for 30 min to generate a robust, adhesive, and solvent-resistant thin film. This cross-linked network enables a sequential active layer to be successfully deposited on top of this interlayer to overcome the problem of interfacial erosion and realize a multilayer inverted device by all-solution processing. An inverted solar cell device based on an ITO/ZnO/C-PCBSD/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag configuration not only achieves enhanced device characteristics, with an impressive PCE of 4.4%, but also exhibits an exceptional device lifetime without encapsulation; it greatly outperforms a reference device (PCE = 3.5%) based on an ITO/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag configuration without the interlayer. This C-PCBSD interlayer exerts multiple positive effects on both P3HT/C-PCBSD and PCBM/C-PCBSD localized heterojunctions at the interface of the active layer, including improved exciton dissociation efficiency, reduced charge recombination, decreased interface contact resistance, and induction of vertical phase separation to reduce the bulk resistance of the active layer as well as passivation of the local shunts at the ZnO interface. Moreover, this promising approach can be applied to another inverted solar cell, ITO/ZnO/C-PCBSD/PCPDTBT:PC(71)BM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag, using PCPDTBT as the p-type low-band-gap conjugated polymer to achieve an improved PCE of 3.4%. Incorporation of this cross-linked C(60) interlayer could become a standard procedure in the fabrication of highly efficient and stable multilayer inverted solar cells.

Donor-acceptor polymers based on multi-fused heptacyclic structures: synthesis, characterization and photovoltaic applications.

We report here two novel 2,7-fluorene- and 2,7-carbazole-based conjugated polymers PFDCTBT and PCDCTBT containing ladder-type heptacyclic structures with forced planarity. PCDTBT shows excellent solubility, low band gap and high hole mobility, leading to a power conversion efficiency of 3.7%.

Alternating and diblock donor-acceptor conjugated polymers based on diindeno[1,2-b:2',1'-d]thiophene structure: synthesis, characterization, and photovoltaic applications.

Pentacyclic diindeno[1,2-b:2',1'-d]thiophene (DIDT) unit is a rigid and coplanar conjugated molecule. To the best of our knowledge, this attractive molecule has never been incorporated into a polymer and thus its application in polymer solar cells has never been explored. For the first time, we report the detailed synthesis of the tetra-alkylated DIDT molecule leading to its dibromo- and diboronic ester derivatives, which are the key monomers for preparation of DIDT-based polymers. Two donor-acceptor alternating polymers, poly(diindenothiophene-alt-benzothiadiazole) PDIDTBT and poly(diindenothiophene-alt-dithienylbenzothiadiazole) PDIDTDTBT, were synthesized by using Suzuki polymerization. Copolymer PTDIDTTBT was also prepared by using Stille polymerization. Although PTDIDTTBT is prepared through a manner of random polymerization, we found that the different reactivities of the dibromo-monomers lead to the resulting polymer having a block copolymer arrangement. With the higher structural regularity, PTDIDTTBT, symbolized as (thiophene-alt-DIDT)(0.5)-block-(thiophene-alt-BT)(0.5), shows the higher degree of crystallization, stronger π-π stacking, and broader absorption spectrum in the solid state, as compared to its alternating PDIDTDTBT analogue. Bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells based on ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer:PC(71)BM/Ca/Al configuration were fabricated and characterized. PDIDTDTBT/PC(71)BM and PTDIDTTBT/PC(71)BM systems exhibited promising power-conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 1.65 % and 2.00 %, respectively. Owing to the complementary absorption spectra, as well as the compatible structures of PDIDTDTBT and PTDIDTTBT, the PCE of the device based on the ternary blend PDIDTDTBT/PTDIDTTBT/PC(71)BM was further improved to 2.40 %.