Reducing non-radiative voltage losses in organic solar cells using molecular encapsulation

Anirudh Sharma, Lisa Sharma, Jules Bertrandie, Diego R. Villalva, Yajun Gao, Catherine S.P. De Castro, Joel Troughton, Julien Gorenflot, Frederic Laquai, Hugo Bronstein*, Derya Baran*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Non-radiative voltage loss is one of the significant bottlenecks limiting the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). This work presents a material design approach for conjugated polymers isolating the polymer chains with molecular encapsulation, enabling better control over the donor-acceptor spacing. Bulk-heterojunction OSCs based on encapsulated polymers as electron donors show a remarkable increase of ∼50 mV in the Voc. Significant improvement in the Voc is attributed to reduced non-radiative voltage losses as evidenced by enhanced electroluminescence as a result of suppressed intermolecular aggregation and an increase in structural disorder. Importantly, molecular encapsulation resulted in notable improvement in the operational stability of OSCs with no burn-in loss in Voc, presenting a promising strategy to simultaneously enhance the performance and operational stability of OSCs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)735-744
Number of pages10
JournalMaterials Chemistry Frontiers
Volume7
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 3 2023

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Materials Chemistry

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