Efficient and Nonhalogenated Solvent-Processed Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Conjugated Donor-Acceptor Block Copolymers Containing the Same Benzodithiophene Unit

Abstract

Organic solar cells (OSCs) based on conjugated block copolymers (CBCs) have gained considerable attention owing to their simple one-pot solution process. However, their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) require significant improvement. Furthermore, the majority of efficient CBC-based OSCs are processed using environmentally toxic halogenated solvents. Herein, we develop a new CBC (PBDB-T-b-PY5BDT) and demonstrate efficient and stable OSCs achieved by a halogen-free solution process. We design a (D1-A1)-b-(D1-A2)-type CBC (PBDB-T-b-PY5BDT) that shares the same benzodithiophene (BDT) units in donor and acceptor blocks. This alleviates unfavorable molecular interactions between the blocks at their interfaces. The PBDB-T-b-PY5BDT-based devices exhibit a high PCE (10.55%), and they show good mechanical, thermal, and storage stabilities. Importantly, we discuss the potential of our OSCs by preparing two different control systems: one based on a binary polymer blend (PBDB-T:PY5BDT) and another based on a conjugated random copolymer (CRC, PBDB-T-r-PY5BDT). We demonstrate that the photovoltaic performance, device stability, and mechanical robustness of the CBC-based OSCs exceed those of the binary all-polymer solar cells and CRC-based OSCs. © 2022 American Chemical Society.