Suppressed recombination loss in organic photovoltaics adopting a planar–mixed heterojunction architecture

Kui Jiang, Jie Zhang, Cheng Zhong, Francis R. Lin (), Feng Qi, Qian Li, Zhengxing Peng, Werner Kaminsky, Sei-Hum Jang, Jianwei Yu, Xiang Deng, Huawei Hu, Dong Shen, Feng Gao, Harald Ade, Min Xiao, Chunfeng Zhang () and Alex K.-Y. Jen ()
Additional contact information
Kui Jiang: City University of Hong Kong
Jie Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Cheng Zhong: Wuhan University
Francis R. Lin: City University of Hong Kong
Feng Qi: City University of Hong Kong
Qian Li: Nanjing University
Zhengxing Peng: North Carolina State University
Werner Kaminsky: University of Washington
Sei-Hum Jang: University of Washington
Jianwei Yu: Linköping University
Xiang Deng: City University of Hong Kong
Huawei Hu: Donghua University
Dong Shen: City University of Hong Kong
Feng Gao: Linköping University
Harald Ade: North Carolina State University
Min Xiao: Nanjing University
Chunfeng Zhang: Nanjing University
Alex K.-Y. Jen: City University of Hong Kong

Nature Energy, 2022, vol. 7, issue 11, 1076-1086

Abstract: Abstract At present, high-performance organic photovoltaics mostly adopt a bulk-heterojunction architecture, in which exciton dissociation is facilitated by charge-transfer states formed at numerous donor–acceptor (D-A) heterojunctions. However, the spin character of charge-transfer states originated from recombination of photocarriers allows relaxation to the lowest-energy triplet exciton (T1) at these heterojunctions, causing photocurrent loss. Here we find that this loss pathway can be alleviated in sequentially processed planar–mixed heterojunction (PMHJ) devices, employing donor and acceptor with intrinsically weaker exciton binding strengths. The reduced D-A intermixing in PMHJ alleviates non-geminate recombination at D-A contacts, limiting the chance of relaxation, thus suppressing T1 formation without sacrificing exciton dissociation efficiency. This resulted in devices with high power conversion efficiencies of >19%. We elucidate the working mechanisms for PMHJs and discuss the implications for material design, device engineering and photophysics, thus providing a comprehensive grounding for future organic photovoltaics to reach their full promise.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01138-y

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