Eco-Friendly Push-Coated Polymer Solar Cells with No Active Material Wastes Yield Power Conversion Efficiencies over 5.5%
Eco-Friendly Push-Coated Polymer Solar Cells with No Active Material Wastes Yield Power Conversion Efficiencies over 5.5%
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DOI：
10.1021/acsami.8b22337
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发表时间：
2019-03-20
影响因子：
9.5
通讯作者：
Vohra, Varun
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Inaba, Shusei;Arai, Ryosuke;Vohra, Varun
推涂是一种简单的工艺，可用于生产极低成本的聚合物电子器件。在这里，我们展示了它在制备poly(2，7-carbazole-alt-dithienylbenzothiadiazole)(PCDTBT)：[6，6]-苯基-C-71-丁酸甲酯(PC71BM)有源层中的应用，当用于倒置聚合物太阳能电池(PSC)时，产生与热退火旋涂薄膜类似的光伏性能。在推涂过程中，聚二甲基硅氧烷层暂时捕获沉积溶剂，导致同时成膜和溶剂退火效应。这消除了沉积后热退火步骤的必要性，这是旋涂PSCs产生高光伏性能所必需的。用比旋涂少20倍的有害溶剂和40倍的活性物质制备了优化的PSC活性层，室温下推涂时间为5min。退火旋涂有源层和推涂5min的有源层的平均功率转换效率(PCE)均为5.77%，而短时间为1min的推涂得到的平均功率转换效率(PCE)略低，为5.59%。我们证明，尽管它们的施主：受主垂直浓度梯度不同，但未封装的PCDTBT：PC71BM有源层推涂1min可产生与热退火旋涂相类似的操作稳定性和放大能力。由于短时间推涂可以实现器件的快速制造，我们通过制作PCE为4.23%、颜色相对中性、平均可见光透过率为40.2%的PSC基半透明光伏器件，进一步展示了这种沉积技术的潜力。因此，我们的工作证实，推涂不仅限于广泛使用的聚(3-己基噻吩基-2，5-二基)，还可以用于低带隙共聚物，并为获得低成本、环保、高效和稳定的PSCs开辟了道路。
Push-coating is a simple process that can be employed for extremely low-cost polymer electronic device production. Here, we demonstrate its application to the fabrication of poly(2,7-carbazole-alt-dithienylbenzothiadiazole) (PCDTBT):[6,6]-phenyl-C-71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) active layers processed in air, yielding similar photovoltaic performances as thermally annealed spin-coated thin films when used in inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs). During push-coating, the polydimethylsiloxane layer temporarily traps the deposition solvent, resulting in simultaneous film formation and solvent annealing effect. This removes the necessity for a postdeposition thermal annealing step which is required for spin-coated PSCs to produce high photovoltaic performances. Optimized PSC active layers are produced with a push-coating time of 5 min at room temperature with 20 times less hazardous solvent and 40 times less active material than spin-coating. Annealed spin-coated active layers and active layers push-coated for 5 min both produce average power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 5.77%, while those push-coated for a shorter time of 1 min yield a slightly lower value of 5.59%. We demonstrate that, despite differences in their donor:acceptor vertical concentration gradients, unencapsulated PCDTBT:PC71BM active layers push-coated for 1 min produce PSCs with similar operational stability and upscaling capacity as thermally annealed spin-coated ones. As fast device fabrication can be achieved with short-time push-coating, we further demonstrate the potential of this deposition technique by manufacturing push-coated PSC-based semitransparent photovoltaic devices with a PCE of 4.23%, relatively neutral colors and an average visible transparency of 40.2%. Our work thus confirms that push-coating is not limited to the widely employed poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) but can also be used with low band gap copolymers and opens the path to low-cost and eco-friendly, yet efficient and stable PSCs.