Impact of non-fullerene acceptors and solvent additive on the nanomorphology, device performance, and photostability of PTB7-Th polymer based organic solar cells

Abstract Non-fullerene acceptors have recently ignited extensive interest in organic solar cells (OSCs) because of their higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) than their fullerene counterparts. Though the effect of solvent additive 1, 8-diiodooctane (DIO) has been studied extensively for fullerene-based acceptor OSCs, not much is known for non-fullerene acceptors OSCs. In our work, bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) OSCs were fabricated by blending fullerene (PC 71 BM) and non-fullerene (ITIC and IEICO-4F) acceptors with low bandgap polymer donor (PTB7-Th). Further, the effects of non-fullerene acceptors on the nanomorphology, performance, and photostability of the devices were investigated. In the absence of DIO, devices with IEICO-4F acceptor showed higher PCE than PTB7-Th: ITIC and PTB7-Th: PC 71 BM BHJ-OSCs due to their absorption in near infrared along with high J sc . The addition of DIO increased PCE in PTB7-Th: PC 71 BM BHJ-OSCs due to improved miscibility of fullerene molecules, higher donor/acceptor interface area, and improved phase separation. However, DIO adversely affected the overall device performance in PTB7-Th: IEICO-4F and PTB7-Th: ITIC BHJ-OSCs. Furthermore, devices processed with DIO were less photostable and exhibited faster degradation due to the photoacid effect of the DIO additive.