Joule: Rigid and flexible block copolymers enable high-performance organic solar cells Zhiguang Valley

• High power conversion efficiency (PCE) and mechanical stability are dual requirements for organic solar cells (OSC) for wearable applications. Bumjoon J. Kim et al. of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology simultaneously achieved high electronic and mechanical properties in OSCs using a conjugated polymer donor (PD) composed of electroactive rigid and soft blocks.

  
  

  The authors integrated rigid and soft blocks to synthesize block-copolymerized PD (D180.8-s-PEHDT0.2), which has an appropriate D18 block molecular weight to achieve effective conjugation length and a PEHDT block to achieve high Mechanical behavior.

  
  

  Therefore, D180.8-s-PEHDT0.2 OSC achieves excellent PCE (19.0%) and stretchability (crack initiation strain [COS] = 17.2%), thereby overcoming the challenges of D18- (PCE = 18.1% and COS =1.5%) and PEHDT-based OSCs (PCE=5.0% and COS=30.7%). Therefore, D180.8-s-PEHDT0.2-OCS achieved high PCE (14.3%) and excellent stretchability.

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• Jin-Woo Lee et.al Rigid- and soft-block-copolymerized conjugated polymers enable high-performance intrinsically stretchable organic solar cells Joule 2023

  DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2023.11.005

  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2023.11.005