Charge Transfer Mechanisms Regulated by the Third Component in Ternary Organic Solar Cells

For ternary organic solar cells (T-OSCs), introducing the third component (D-2) can significantly enhance the efficiency of cell while still maintaining easy fabrication. However, it brings difficulty in physical understanding of the fundamental mechanism because of the more complicated photophysical processes in T-OSCs. Accordingly, how the guest donor D-2 regulates the charge transfer mechanism was explored in theory using three T-OSCs containing two donors and an acceptor. The results point out that larger differences in molecular weight and/or backbone between D-2 and the host donor D-1 cause different charge transfer mechanisms, which hardly provide a coexisting charge transfer path. Besides, strong absorption capacity of D-2 with a high oscillator strength would produce favorable regulation of the charge transfer mechanism. Therefore, this work clarifies the influence of D-2 on the charge transfer mechanism in T-OSCs, which suggests that the method of improving the power conversion efficiency cannot be generalized but rather must be tailored to specific conditions.

Automated summary

This study investigates the influence of introducing a third component (D-2) in ternary organic solar cells (T-OSCs) on the charge transfer mechanism. The results indicate that factors such as molecular weight and oscillator strength of D-2 affect the selection of charge transfer pathways, providing important insights for improving the efficiency of T-OSCs.