Morphology and efficiency enhancements of PTB7-Th:ITIC nonfullerene organic solar cells processed via solvent vapor annealing

The nanoscale morphology within the photoactive layer of organic solar cells is critical in determining the power conversion efficiency (PCE). Here, we draw attention to the roles of molecular arrangement, and domain size in improving performance, which can be tuned by subjecting the photovoltaic materials to solvent vapor annealing (SVA). In our PTB7-Th:ITIC devices, the PCE can be improved by exposing the device to solvent vapor for 60 s after solution casting. The solvent vapor prolongs reorganizational time and increases molecular ordering and domain size/phase separation, which are sub-optimal in pristine PTB7-Th:ITIC blend films. This improved morphology results in better charge mobility, reduced recombination, and ultimately an improved PCE from 7.1% to 7.9% when using CS2 as the annealing solvent. This simple SVA technique can be applied to a range of OPV systems where the molecular ordering is inferior within the as-cast photoactive layer. (C) 2018 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.