Printed Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with the Highest Efficiency of 9.5%

The current work reports a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.54% achieved with nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) based on PTB7-Th donor and 3,9-bis(2-methylene-(3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-indanone))-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2,3-d]-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b]dithiophene) (ITIC) acceptor fabricated by doctor-blade printing, which has the highest efficiency ever reported in printed nonfullerene OSCs. Furthermore, a high PCE of 7.6% is realized in flexible large-area (2.03 cm(2)) indium tin oxide (ITO)-free doctor-bladed nonfullerene OSCs, which is higher than that (5.86%) of the spin-coated counterpart. To understand the mechanism of the performance enhancement with doctor-blade printing, the morphology, crystallinity, charge recombination, and transport of the active layers are investigated. These results suggest that the good performance of the doctor-blade OSCs is attributed to a favorable nanoscale phase separation by incorporating 0.6 vol% of 1,8-diiodooctane that prolongs the dynamic drying time of the doctor-bladed active layer and contributes to the migration of ITIC molecules in the drying process. High PCE obtained in the flexible large-area ITO-free doctor-bladed nonfullerene OSCs indicates the feasibility of doctor-blade printing in large-scale fullerene-free OSC manufacturing. For the first time, the open-circuit voltage is increased by 0.1 V when 1 vol% solvent additive is added, due to the vertical segregation of ITIC molecules during solvent evaporation.