TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zhang, Kai
A1  - Chen, Zhiming
A1  - Armin, Ardalan
A1  - Dong, Sheng
A1  - Xia, Ruoxi
A1  - Yip, Hin-Lap
A1  - Shoaee, Safa
A1  - Huang, Fei
A1  - Cao, Yong
T1  - Efficient large area organic solar cells processed by blade-coating with single-component green solvent
JF  - Solar Rrl
N2  - While the performance of laboratory-scale organic solar cells (OSCs) continues to grow, development of high efficiency large area OSCs remains a big challenge. Although a few attempts to produce large area organic solar cells (OSCs) have been reported, there are still challenges on the way to realizing efficient module devices, such as the low compatibility of the thickness-sensitive active layer with large area coating techniques, the frequent need for toxic solvents and tedious optimization processes used during device fabrication. In this work, highly efficient thickness-insensitive OSCs based on PTB7-Th:PC71BM that processed with single-component green solvent 2-methylanisole are presented, in which both junction thickness limitation and solvent toxicity issues are simultaneously addressed. Careful investigation reveals that this green solvent prevents the evolution of PC71BM into large area clusters resulting in reduced charge carrier recombination, and largely eliminates trapping centers, and thus improves the thickness tolerance of the films. These findings enable us to address the scalability and solvent toxicity issues and to fabricate a 16 cm(2) OSC with doctor-blade coating with a state-of-the-art power conversion efficiency of 7.5% using green solvent.
KW  - doctor-blade coating
KW  - green solvents
KW  - large area devices
KW  - organic solar cells
KW  - thickness insensitive active layers
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201700169
SN  - 2367-198X
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nikolis, Vasileios C.
A1  - Benduhn, Johannes
A1  - Holzmueller, Felix
A1  - Piersimoni, Fortunato
A1  - Lau, Matthias
A1  - Zeika, Olaf
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Koerner, Christian
A1  - Spoltore, Donato
A1  - Vandewal, Koen
T1  - Reducing Voltage Losses in Cascade Organic Solar Cells while Maintaining High External Quantum Efficiencies
JF  - dvanced energy materials
N2  - High photon energy losses limit the open-circuit voltage (V-OC) and power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, an optimization route is presented which increases the V-OC by reducing the interfacial area between donor (D) and acceptor (A). This optimization route concerns a cascade device architecture in which the introduction of discontinuous interlayers between alpha-sexithiophene (alpha-6T) (D) and chloroboron subnaphthalocyanine (SubNc) (A) increases the V-OC of an alpha-6T/SubNc/SubPc fullerene-free cascade OSC from 0.98 V to 1.16 V. This increase of 0.18 V is attributed solely to the suppression of nonradiative recombination at the D-A interface. By accurately measuring the optical gap (E-opt) and the energy of the charge-transfer state (E-CT) of the studied OSC, a detailed analysis of the overall voltage losses is performed. E-opt - qV(OC) losses of 0.58 eV, which are among the lowest observed for OSCs, are obtained. Most importantly, for the V-OC-optimized devices, the low-energy (700 nm) external quantum efficiency (EQE) peak remains high at 79%, despite a minimal driving force for charge separation of less than 10 meV. This work shows that low-voltage losses can be combined with a high EQE in organic photovoltaic devices.
KW  - energy losses
KW  - nonradiative recombination
KW  - open-circuit voltage
KW  - organic solar cells
KW  - voltage losses
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201700855
SN  - 1614-6832
SN  - 1614-6840
VL  - 7
SP  - 122
EP  - 136
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  -