High-Reproducibility Layer-by-Layer Non-Fullerene Organic Photovoltaics with 19.18% Efficiency Enabled by Vacuum-Assisted Molecular Drift Treatment

초록

The thin film deposition engineering of layer-by-layer (LbL) non-fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) favors vertical phase distributions of donor:acceptor (D:A), effectively boosting the power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, previous deposition strategies mainly aimed at optimizing the morphology of LbL films, and paid limited attention to the reproducibility of device performance. To achieve high device performance and maintain reproducibility, a strategy for hierarchical morphology manipulation in LbL OSCs is developed. A series of LbL devices are fabricated by introducing vacuum-assisted molecular drift treatment (VMDT) to the donor or acceptor layer individually or simultaneously to elucidate the functionalities of this treatment. Essentially, the VMDT provides an extended drift driving force to manipulate the donor and acceptor molecules, resulting in a well-defined vertical phase distribution and ordered molecular packing. These enhancements facilitate improvement in the D:A interface area and charge transport channel, ultimately contributing to impressive PCEs of 19.18% from 18.27% in the LbL devices. More importantly, using VMDT overcomes the notorious batch-dependent and heat treatment degradation issues of OSCs, leading to excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility and enhanced stability of the devices. This reported method provides a promising strategy available for industrial and laboratory use to controllably manipulate the morphology of LbL OSCs. The vacuum-assisted molecule drift treatment presents a new approach to developing proper phase separation in layer-by-layer non-fullerene solar cells, effectively overcoming the limitations of thermal degradation and chemical incompatibility. Studies on charge transport and morphology properties reveal that vacuum-assisted molecule drift treatment is essentially an extended spatially mechanical driving force for finely manipulating the vertical phase distribution toward high-performance organic solar cells. image

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