Over 18% Efficiency Ternary Organic Solar Cells with 300 nm Thick Active Layer Enabled by an Oligomeric Acceptor

Abstract

AbstractThe development of high‐efficiency thickness‐insensitive organic solar cells (OSCs) is crucially important for the mass production of solar panels. However, increasing the active layer thickness usually induces a substantial loss in efficiency. Herein, a ternary strategy in which an oligomer DY‐TF is incorporated into PM6:L8‐BO system as a guest component is adopted to break this dilemma. The S···F intramolecular noncovalent interactions in the backbone endow DY‐TF with a high planarity. Upon the addition of DY‐TF, the crystallinity of the blend is effectively improved, leading to increased charge carrier mobility, which is highly desirable in the fabrication of thick‐film devices. As a result, thin‐film PM6:L8‐BO:DY‐TF‐based device (110 nm) shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.13%. Impressively, when the active layer thickness increases to 300 nm, an efficiency of 18.23% (certified as 17.8%) is achieved, representing the highest efficiency reported for 300 nm thick OSCs thus far. Additionally, blade‐coated thick device (300 nm) delivers a promising PCE of 17.38%. This work brings new insights into the construction of efficient OSCs with high thickness tolerance, showing great potential for roll‐to‐roll printing of large‐area solar cells.