Biorenewable Solvents for High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

With the advent of nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs), organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices are now achieving high enough power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) for commercialization. However, these high performances rely on active layers processed from petroleum-based and toxic solvents, which are undesirable for mass manufacturing. Here, we demonstrate the use of biorenewable 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2MeTHF) and cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME) solvents to process donor: NFA-based OPVs with no additional additives in the active layer. Furthermore, to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the manufacturing cycle of the OPVs, we use polymeric donors that require a few synthetic steps for their synthesis, namely, PTQ10 and FO6-T, which are blended with the Y-series NFA Y12. High performance was achieved using 2MeTHF as the processing solvent, reaching PCEs of 14.5% and 11.4% for PTQ10:Y12 and FO6-T:Y12 blends, respectively. This work demonstrates the potential of using biorenewable solvents without additives for the processing of OPV active layers, opening the door to large-scale and green manufacturing of organic solar cells.