Polymer Acceptors with Flexible Spacers Afford Efficient and Mechanically Robust All-Polymer Solar Cells.

Genene, Zewdneh; Lee, Jin-Woo; Lee, Sun-Woo; Chen, Qiaonan; Tan, Zhengping; Abdulahi, Birhan A; Yu, Donghong; Kim, Taek-Soo et al. · Adv Mater · 2022

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

High efficiency and mechanical robustness are both crucial for the practical applications of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) in stretchable and wearable electronics. In this regard, a series of new polymer acceptors (P<sub>A</sub> s) is reported by incorporating a flexible conjugation-break spacer (FCBS) to achieve highly efficient and mechanically robust all-PSCs. Incorporation of FCBS affords the effective modulation of the crystallinity and pre-aggregation of the P<sub>A</sub> s, and achieves the optimal blend morphology with polymer donor (P<sub>D</sub> ), increasing both the photovoltaic and mechanical properties of all-PSCs. In particular, an all-PSC based on PYTS-0.3 P<sub>A</sub> incorporated with 30% FCBS and PBDB-T P<sub>D</sub> demonstrates a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.68% and excellent mechanical stretchability with a crack onset strain (COS) of 21.64% and toughness of 3.86 MJ m<sup>-3</sup> , which is significantly superior to those of devices with the P<sub>A</sub> without the FCBS (PYTS-0.0, PCE = 13.01%, and toughness = 2.70 MJ m<sup>-3</sup> ). To date, this COS is the highest value reported for PSCs with PCEs of over 8% without any insulating additives. These results reveal that the introduction of FCBS into the conjugated backbone is a highly feasible strategy to simultaneously improve the PCE and stretchability of PSCs.