Understanding the effect of the drying rate in process–structure–performance relationships for PM6-Y6 organic solar cells

Making solution-cast organic solar cells industrially available generally comes at the cost of significant performance losses compared to device prototypes manufactured under laboratory conditions. Adjusting solvent evaporation kinetics is postulated to recover efficiency. Yet, a comprehensive characterization of their effect, independently of other property-defining parameters, is lacking. Thus, the present objective is to isolate the influence of the solvent drying rate on solution-deposited organic active layer nanomorphologies and performances. To this end, a specially designed gas quenching technique is employed to fabricate PM6:Y6 donor-acceptor films under systematic variations of evaporation conditions. Using an extensive investigation protocol that combines insights from numerical simulations and experimental measurements, process–structure–performance relationships are unraveled. It is found that higher drying rates imply finer and more dispersed nanomorphologies with increased fractions of amorphous material. This enhances electric charge generation, thereby improving short-circuit current density and overall cell performance. The open-circuit voltage is also boosted under accelerated evaporation due to changes in the aggregation mode of the Y6 small molecule that induce higher effective bandgaps. The results demonstrate that the developed gas-quenching technique is a valuable tool for optimizing performance of upscaled organic photovoltaics, as it is readily compatible with high-throughput equipment, such as roll-to-roll coating machines.