Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) based on nonfullerene small molecule acceptors have been the subject of renewable energy research in the past five years. Ternary photovoltaic blends comprising a polymer donor, a nonfullerene small molecule acceptor, and a fullerene acceptor have proved to be most efficient active layers for OPV devices. However, the morphological parameters and their relations with mechanical properties and photovoltaic performance of this type of highly efficient polymer:nonfullerene:fullerene OPVs are still unknown to date. To address this question, we characterized the thin-film microstructure and mechanical behavior of the best-performing ternary OPV active layer (PM6:N3:PC71BM). Specifically, we alter the relative weight ratio of acceptors and systematically examined the composition dependence of photovoltaic performance, surface/bulk morphology, and mechanical parameters of the ternary blend films. It is shown that the addition of 20 wt% PC71BM to the acceptor component results in the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) and crack-onset strain (COS) (Figure 1a). Most notably, we discover that it is possible to predict the elastic modulus of the ternary blend films by an extended Halpin-Tsai model (Figure 1b). This work provides simple guidelines for predicting the mechanical properties of many electronic devices based on ternary blends.

Manipulation of morphological, mechanical, and photovoltaic properties of ternary organic photovoltaic blends for optimum operation

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.