Illuminating how solvent additives improve efficiency in polymer solar cells

The Nara Institute of Science and Technology.

Solar cells made from all-polymer blend can be produced in large-scale flexible sheets and are expected to play an important role in the transition to clean energy technologies. Their performance lags behind other organic solar cells and more traditional Silicon alternatives.

All-polymer blend solar cells are formed by combining two solutions that solidify into a film on an electrode with interpenetrating networks, a kind of phase-separation. This improvement has not been fully understood. The performance enhancement mechanism using photoconductive atomic force microscopy has been investigated by researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology. Their findings will help accelerate the application of solar cells.

There has been an urgent need for a greater understanding of the process because of the empirical nature of solvent-mediated efficiency enhancement.

The PC-AFM technique allows the visualization of photocurrents with nanometer-scale resolution. The power conversion and photocurrent density of an all-polymer blend solar cell can be improved by up to 3 by adding trace solvent Additives.

The order in the polymers was improved by the trace Additives. The flow of photocurrent is increased by forming a network that efficiently transports the photogenerated charges.

The scale of phase separation that is critical to device function was retained, despite the fact that local photocurrents were enhanced.

The study's results are expected to be important for the performance of all-polymer blend solar cells. By using the findings to minimize laboratory trial-and-error, it is hoped researchers can speed up ongoing bench-to-market efforts, taking us a step closer to high- performance solar cells that are sustainable and easy to produce on a large scale.

More information: Yuji Yamagata et al, Nanoscale Observation of the Influence of Solvent Additives on All-Polymer Blend Solar Cells by Photoconductive Atomic Force Microscopy, ACS Applied Polymer Materials (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acsapm.1c01173 Journal information: Applied Polymer Materials Provided by Nara Institute of Science and Technology Citation: Illuminating how solvent additives improve efficiency in polymer solar cells (2022, January 28) retrieved 28 January 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-01-illuminating-solvent-additives-efficiency-polymer.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.