Copolymerized Plasticizer Enables Halogen‐Free Processing Toward 20.78% and 17.83% Efficient Organic Solar Cells and Modules
Abstract
ABSTRACT Nonhalogenated solvents are promising for scalable fabrication of organic solar cells (OSCs). However, the intrinsically low solubility of high‐molecular‐weight donor polymers in nonhalogenated solvents, particularly those with tightly packed, highly crystalline backbones such as the pinnacle of donor materials (D18), disrupts multiscale morphology evolution and severely limits device performance. Here, without compromising the polymer's molecular weight or its intrinsic propensity for ordered packing, we establish a copolymerized “plasticizer” strategy that enhances the solvation interaction between a nonhalogenated solvent (toluene) and an appended plasticizing comonomer, thereby improving the processability. By integrating a plasticizing unit (bis(2‐(2‐methoxyethoxy)ethyl) thieno[3,2‐ b ]thiophene‐3,6‐dicarboxylate) into the D18 backbone, the resulting D18‐O exhibits markedly enhanced solubility through dipolar interactions with toluene. These interactions suppress excessive pre‐aggregation, slow down crystallization kinetics of the donor, and ultimately guide the formation of well‐defined nanocrystals and a hierarchy of optimized morphologies during nonhalogenated processing. This approach enables both OSCs and modules processed from toluene to achieve record power conversion efficiencies of 20.78% (certified 20.40%) and 17.83% (certified 17.29%), respectively, along with exceptional stability.
Article Details
Authors (14)
Jiachen Zhang
Department of Infectious Disease, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China
Hongxiang Li
College of Polymer Science and Engineering State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering
Junyuan Ding
Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Novel Semiconductor-optoelectronics Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Jia Li
Hanyue Yang
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Physics, and Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University 2 , Nanjing 210093,
Yingyi Wang
Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Novel Semiconductor-optoelectronics Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Juan Zhu
College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences
Weijie Chen
Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Novel Semiconductor-optoelectronics Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Shengao Yang
Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials Suzhou Key Laboratory of Novel Semiconductor‐Optoelectronics Materials and Devices State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science College of Chemistry Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Soochow University Suzhou China
Hao Xu
Shengyu Li
Chunfeng Zhang
Haiyang Chen
Yaowen Li