Session: PMSE/POLY Poster Session:

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) based on nonfullerene small molecule acceptors have been the subject of renewable energy research in the past five years. Ternary photovoltaic blends comprising a polymer donor, a nonfullerene small molecule acceptor, and a fullerene acceptor have proved to be most efficient active layers for OPV devices. However, the morphological parameters and their relations with mechanical properties and photovoltaic performance of this type of highly efficient polymer:nonfullerene:fullerene OPVs are still unknown to date.
To address this question, we characterized the thin-film microstructure and mechanical behavior of the best-performing ternary OPV active layer (PM6:N3:PC₇₁BM). Specifically, we alter the relative weight ratio of acceptors and systematically examined the composition dependence of photovoltaic performance, surface/bulk morphology, and mechanical parameters of the ternary blend films. It is shown that the addition of 20 wt% PC₇₁BM to the acceptor component results in the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) and crack-onset strain (COS) (Figure 1a). Most notably, we discover that it is possible to predict the elastic modulus of the ternary blend films by an extended Halpin-Tsai model (Figure 1b). This work provides simple guidelines for predicting the mechanical properties of many electronic devices based on ternary blends.

Figure 1. (a) The plot of PCE and COS of ternary blend films with PC<sub>71</sub>BM content in the acceptor component. (b) The three-dimensional surface diagram of three mechanical models and experimental data of ternary blend films.

Figure 1. (a) The plot of PCE and COS of ternary blend films with PC₇₁BM content in the acceptor component. (b) The three-dimensional surface diagram of three mechanical models and experimental data of ternary blend films.

Dr. Zhongxiang Peng

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