• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: A Donor Polymer with a Good Compromise between Efficiency and Sustainability for Organic Solar Cells
  • Contributor: Penconi, Marta; Bianchi, Gabriele; Nitti, Andrea; Savoini, Alberto; Carbonera, Chiara; Pasini, Dario; Po, Riccardo; Luzzati, Silvia
  • imprint: Wiley, 2021
  • Published in: Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1002/aesr.202100069
  • ISSN: 2699-9412
  • Keywords: General Medicine
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:sec><jats:label /><jats:p>Impressive advancements in solution‐processed bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells have been driven to a large extent by the rational design of conjugated polymers as photoactive donors. These achievements have been obtained without paying much attention to green metrics parameters (such as E factor) and to the increasing synthetic complexity (SC), which is a bottleneck for industrial scalability. In this context, a novel donor copolymer (PBDT3T) based on benzodithiophene and terthiophene building blocks with ester functionalities is synthesized. The 26‐fold‐reduced E factor for the benzodithiophene monomer synthesis and the SC index of 24 for PBDT3T, much lower compared with benchmark donor polymers, provide a hint for good scalability, sustainability, and low costs. PBDT3T features a relatively wide optical bandgap and a deep highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), meeting the requirements for suitable donor material in both fullerene and nonfullerene‐based solar cells. PBDT3T is studied in binary and ternary blend, using PC<jats:sub>71</jats:sub>BM and ITIC as acceptors. The best performances are obtained in the ternary blend devices, reaching power conversion efficiency (PCE) values of 7.14%. Trade‐off considerations between PCE and SC make PBDT3T promising on an industrial perspective.</jats:p></jats:sec>
  • Access State: Open Access