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Impact of alkoxyl tail of fullerene dyad acceptor on crystalline microstructure for efficient external treatment-free polymer solar cells with poly(3-hexylthiophene) as donor

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Abstract

A series of tri(alkoxyl)benzene-fullerene dyads(PCBB-Cn, n=4, 6, 8, 10, 12) with varied tri(alkoxyl) chain lengths was designed, synthesized and used as acceptor materials in polymer solar cells(PSCs). The five fullerene dyads possess similar absorption spectra in dilute solution, decreased glass-transition temperature(T g ) and gradually elevated lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO) energy levels from–3.87 eV to–3.73 eV with the increase of the alkoxy chain length. In the fabrication of PSCs with poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) as donor and the fullerene dyads as acceptor, PCBB-Cn with longer tri(alkoxyl) chains and lower Tg can induce crystalline structure of P3HT during spin-coating the photoactive layer at room temperature and form nanoscale phase separated interpenetrating network of P3HT:PCBB-C n blend films, which results in the improvement of photovoltaic performance of PSCs. A power conversion efficiency of 3.03% for the PSCs based on P3HT:PCBB-C10 was obtained without thermal annealing or solvent annealing. The thermal and solvent annealing-free fabrication using the fullerene dyads as acceptor is very important for the roll to roll production of PSCs with flexible large area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P. R. China

    Rongming Xue, Yue Zhao, Guiying Xu, Yaowen Li & Yongfang Li

  2. Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P. R. China

    Yaowen Li

  3. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institution of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China

    Yongfang Li

Authors
  1. Rongming Xue
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  2. Yue Zhao
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  3. Guiying Xu
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  4. Yaowen Li
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  5. Yongfang Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yaowen Li.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.21204057, 91333204), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China(No.BK2012213), the Priority Academic Development Program of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, China and the Soochow University Undergraduate Training Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, China( No.2013XjOZO).

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Xue, R., Zhao, Y., Xu, G. et al. Impact of alkoxyl tail of fullerene dyad acceptor on crystalline microstructure for efficient external treatment-free polymer solar cells with poly(3-hexylthiophene) as donor. Chem. Res. Chin. Univ. 31, 865–872 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40242-015-5184-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40242-015-5184-1

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