Effect of dihydronaphthyl-based C60 bisadduct as third component materials on the photovoltaic performance and charge carrier recombination of binary PBDB-T : ITIC polymer solar cells

A dihydronaphthyl-based C60 bisadduct (NCBA) acceptor was introduced as a third component to typical poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl) thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b: 4,5-b0] dithiophene))-alt-(5,5( 10,30-di-2-thienyl-50,70-bis(2-ethylhexyl) benzo[10,20-c: 40,50-c0] dithiophene-4,8-dione))] (PBDB-T): 3,9-bis(2-methylene-(3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-indanone))-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno [2,3-d: 20,30-d0]-s-indaceno[1,2-b: 5,6-b0]-dithiophene (ITIC) binary polymer solar cells (PSCs). NCBA plays a bridging role between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of PBDB-T and ITIC and provides more routes for charge carrier transfer at the interface between PBDB-T and ITIC, whereupon a higher open-circuit voltage (V-OC) could be realized upon the addition of NCBA relative to the neat ITIC as an electron acceptor. With the strong visible light absorption in the range from 300 to 520 nm of the NCBA molecule, it had the effect of apparently complementary visible light absorption compared with the binary PBDB-T : ITIC layer. The crystallinity and surface morphology of the PBDB-T : NCBA : ITIC (1 : 0.1 : 0.9) thin films was similar to that of the binary PBDB-T : ITIC layer, which guaranteed suitable efficient exciton dissociation and charge carrier transport. The photocurrent density versus effective voltage (J(ph)-V-eff) curves, short-circuit current density (J(SC)), and VOC as a function of incident light intensity as well as the transient photovoltage (TPV) and transient photocurrent (TPC) were measured, and the results illustrated the effects of NCBA as third component materials in terms of efficient exciton dissociation and reduced charge carrier recombination and loss. The PBDB-T : NCBA : ITIC (1 : 0.1 : 0.9)based PSCs showed an optimized PCE value of 9.56% and better thermal stability after 10 h thermal annealing treatment (the normalized PCE value was 92.5% of the initial PCE value).