Ultrafast Kinetics of Chlorinated Polymer Donors: A Faster Excitonic Dissociation Path

  • Lihe Yan
  • , Zezhou Liang
  • , Jinhai Si
  • , Pingping Gong
  • , Yufei Wang
  • , Xingpeng Liu
  • , Junfeng Tong
  • , Jianfeng Li
  • , Xun Hou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Halogen-substituted donor/acceptor materials are widely regarded as a promising strategy toward improved power-conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in polymer solar cells (PSCs). A chlorinated polymer donor, PClBTA-PS, and its non-chlorinated analogue, PBTA-PS, are synthesized. The PClBTA-PS-based devices show significant enhancements in terms of open-circuit voltage (VOC = 0.82 V) and fill factor (FF = 76.20%). In addition, a PCE of 13.20% is obtained, which is significantly higher than that for the PBTA-PS-based devices (PCE = 7.63%). Grazing incident wide-angle X-ray scattering shows that the chlorinated polymer enables better π-πstacking in both pure and blend films. DFT and TD-DFT calculations as well as ultrafast photophysics measurements indicate that chlorinated PClBTA-PS has a smaller bonding energy and a longer spontaneous-emission lifetime. The results also reveal that the charge-transfer-state excitons in PClBTA-PS:IT4Cl blend films split into the charge-separated (CS) state via a faster dissociation path, which produces a higher yield of the CS state. Overall, this study provides a deeper understanding of how a halogen-substituted polymer can improve PSCs in the future.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6945-6957
Number of pages13
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume14
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Feb 2022

Keywords

  • density functional theory
  • excitonic dissociation path
  • femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption (fs-TA) spectroscopy
  • halogen-substitution
  • polymer solar cells

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