2021 Energy Environ. Sci. (IF 38.532), Selenophenol Donor Realizes High-efficiency Binary ASM-OSC

SS-X solar simulator makes the breakthrough possible!
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　　Energy & Environmental Science (IF 38.532) recently published a study. The research team realized a binary all-small-molecule organic solar cell with an efficiency of 15.8% through a new type of liquid crystal small molecule donor.

　　Using selenophene instead of photovoltaic materials can improve the interaction between molecules and optimize the phase separation morphology to an ideal state. However, for liquid crystal donors that have shown high efficiency, the performance of this alternative strategy is still unclear. Since the combination of these structural advantages may help achieve the most advanced device performance, the research team designed and synthesized two new liquid crystal small molecule donors L1 and L2 to study the effect of selenophene on the morphology and photovoltaic performance. L1 and L2 are based on benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b0]dithiophene (BDT) as the core. The main difference between the two is the conjugated side chain of BDT, including L1 with thiophene and L2 with selenophene.

Material structure and optical properties of donor.

　　Researchers optimized and studied all small molecule organic solar cells (ASM-OSC) with L1 or L2 as the donor and Y6 as the acceptor. With Enlitech’s the solar simulator and the QE-R quantum efficiency measurement system used for spectral response measurement, the research results showed that the reference device L1:Y6 obtained 14.6% PCE, and the L2:Y6 device obtained 15.8% excellent PCE. In particular, even if the film thickness of L2:Y6 was as high as B300 nm, ASM-OSC could still produce a good 14.3% PCE, which exceeded the efficiency of thick film (Z300 nm) OSC.

In addition to the EQE (External Quantum Efficiency) spectrum analysis of solar cells, the Quantum Efficiency Measurement System of Enlitech also provides Jsc (short-circuit current density) comparison for the short-circuit current of solar cells under the solar simulator to prove the authenticity of the experiment. The solar simulator and KA-6000 software of Enlitech also provide monitoring of the short-circuit current over time to prove the stability of the solar cell!