Measuring Temperature-Dependent Miscibility for Polymer Solar Cell Blends: An Easily Accessible Optical Method Reveals Complex BehaviorClick to copy article linkArticle link copied!
- Zhengxing PengZhengxing PengDepartment of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United StatesMore by Zhengxing Peng
- Xuechen JiaoXuechen JiaoDepartment of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United StatesMore by Xuechen Jiao
- Long YeLong YeDepartment of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United StatesMore by Long Ye
- Sunsun LiSunsun LiState Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaMore by Sunsun Li
- Jeromy James RechJeromy James RechDepartment of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United StatesMore by Jeromy James Rech
- Wei YouWei YouDepartment of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United StatesMore by Wei You
- Jianhui HouJianhui HouState Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaMore by Jianhui Hou
- Harald Ade*Harald Ade*E-mail: [email protected]Department of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United StatesMore by Harald Ade
Abstract
![Abstract Image](/cms/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b00889/asset/images/medium/cm-2018-00889k_0005.gif)
In bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells (PSC), the molecular-level mixing between conjugated polymer donors and small-molecule acceptors plays a crucial role in obtaining a desirable morphology and good device stability. It has been recently shown that the thermodynamic limit of this mixing can be quantified by the liquidus miscibility, the composition of the small-molecule acceptor in amorphous phases in the presence of small-molecule crystals, and then converted to the Flory–Huggins interaction parameter χ. This conversion maps out the amorphous miscibility. Moreover, the quantitative relations between χ and the fill factor of PSC devices were established recently. However, the commonly used measurement of this liquidus miscibility, scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, is not easily and readily accessible. Here, we delineate a method based on common visible light microscopy and ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy to replace the X-ray measurements. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technique and methodology, a variety of conjugated polymers (PffBT4T-C9C13, PDPP3T PBDT-TS1, PTB7-Th, and FTAZ) and their miscibility with fullerenes or nonfullerene small molecules (PC71BM, PC61BM, and EH-IDTBR) are characterized. The establishment of this methodology will pave the way to a wider use of the liquidus miscibility and the critical miscibility-function relations to optimize the device performance and obtain good stability in PSCs and other devices.
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