Approaching 18% efficiency of ternary organic photovoltaics with wide bandgap polymer donor and well compatible Y6:Y6-1O as acceptor

A series of ternary organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are fabricated with one wide bandgap polymer D18-Cl as donor, and well compatible Y6 and Y6-1O as acceptor. The open-circuit-voltage (V-OC) of ternary OPVs is monotonously increased along with the incorporation of Y6-1O, indicating that the alloy state should be formed between Y6 and Y6-1O due to their excellent compatibility. The energy loss can be minimized by incorporating Y6-1O, leading to the V-OC improvement of ternary OPVs. By finely adjusting the Y6-1O content, a power conversion efficiency of 17.91% is achieved in the optimal ternary OPVs with 30 wt% Y6-1O in acceptors, resulting from synchronously improved short-circuit-current density (J(SC)) of 25.87 mA cm(-2), fill factor (FF) of 76.92% and V-OC of 0.900 V in comparison with those of D18-Cl : Y6 binary OPVs. The J(SC) and FF improvement of ternary OPVs should be ascribed to comprehensively optimal photon harvesting, exciton dissociation and charge transport in ternary active layers. The more efficient charge separation and transport process in ternary active layers can be confirmed by the magnetophotocurrent and impedance spectroscopy experimental results, respectively. This work provides new insight into constructing highly efficient ternary OPVs with well compatible Y6 and its derivative as acceptor.

Automated summary

A series of ternary organic photovoltaics have been successfully fabricated by incorporating Y6-1O, which leads to an increase in open-circuit voltage and power conversion efficiency of the devices. By finely adjusting the content of Y6-1O, the optimal device with 30% Y6-1O achieves a conversion efficiency of 17.91%, with significantly improved short-circuit current density and fill factor.