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15.4% Efficiency all-polymer solar cells

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Abstract

We report all-polymer solar cells (All-PSCs) with record-high power conversion efficiency (PCE) through tuning the molecular weights of the polymer donor (PBDB-T) to form optimal active layer morphology. By combining the polymer donors with a newly reported polymer acceptor (PJ1), an unprecedented high PCE of 15.4% and fill factor over 75% were achieved for the All-PSCs with the medium molecular weight polymer donor (PBDB-TMW), which is the highest value for All-PSCs reported so far. Detailed morphology investigation revealed that the proper phase separation in the PBDB-TMW:PJ1 blend should account for the superior device performance as PBDB-TMW exhibits appropriate miscibility with the polymer acceptor PJ1. These results demonstrated that the device performance of All-PSCs could be fully comparable to that of small molecular acceptor-based PSCs. The formation of optimized morphology via precise control of molecular weights of polymer donors and acceptors is crucial to achieve this goal.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2019YFA0705900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21875072), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (South China University of Technology, D2190310), Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research Team Program (2019ZT08L075) and the Open Funds of State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals (KF1901).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials & Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Long Zhang, Tao Jia, Langheng Pan, Baoqi Wu, Chunhui Duan, Fei Huang & Yong Cao

  2. Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, China

    Zaiyu Wang

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195, USA

    Ke Gao

  4. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Feng Liu

  5. State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Chunhui Duan

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  1. Long Zhang
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  2. Tao Jia
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  3. Langheng Pan
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  4. Baoqi Wu
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  7. Feng Liu
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  8. Chunhui Duan
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  9. Fei Huang
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  10. Yong Cao
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Chunhui Duan or Fei Huang.

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Zhang, L., Jia, T., Pan, L. et al. 15.4% Efficiency all-polymer solar cells. Sci. China Chem. 64, 408–412 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9935-2

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