Film Formation Kinetics of Polymer Donor and Nonfullerene Acceptor Active Layers During Printing Out of 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene in Ambient Conditions

Slot-die coating is a promising upscaling fabrication method to promote commercialization in the field of organic solar cells. Herein, the nonfullerene active layer blend of a conjugated polymer PffBT4T-2OD and a small molecule acceptor EH-IDTBR, which is printed out of the nonhalogenated solvent 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, is studied. The film formation kinetics of the active layer PffBT4T-2OD:EH-IDTBR is probed in terms of the temporal evolutions in morphology as well as molecular conformation and aggregation as revealed by in situ grazing-incidence small angle X-ray scattering and UV-vis spectroscopy during the film printing process. A five-regime mesoscale domain growth process is observed in the active layer from the liquid state to the final dry state. The solvent evaporation-induced domain growth is accompanied with molecular stacking in a distinct J-type aggregation of the acceptor and a slight H-type aggregation of the donor molecules. The printed active layers exhibit an edge-on dominated PffBT4T-2OD and a face-on dominated EH-IDTBR crystallite structure. Compared to the neat PffBT4T-2OD and EH-IDTBR films, in the active layer, the crystallite structure deviates slightly in lattice spacing.

Automated summary

Slot-die coating is a promising method to commercialize organic solar cells. In this study, the film formation kinetics of a nonfullerene active layer blend of PffBT4T-2OD and EH-IDTBR was investigated using in situ grazing-incidence small angle X-ray scattering and UV-vis spectroscopy. A mesoscale domain growth process with distinct molecular stacking and aggregation behavior was observed during solvent evaporation. The printed active layers exhibited specific crystallite structures dominated by PffBT4T-2OD and EH-IDTBR.