Donor–Acceptor Alternating Copolymer Compatibilizers for Thermally Stable, Mechanically Robust, and High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Small-molecule acceptor (SMA)-based organic solar cells (OSCs) have achieved high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), while their long-term stabilities remain to be improved to meet the requirements for real applications. Herein, we demonstrate the use of donor-acceptor alternating copolymer-type compatibilizers (DACCs) in high-performance SMA-based OSCs, enhancing their PCE, thermal stability, and mechanical robustness simultaneously. Detailed experimental and computational studies reveal that the addition of DACCs to polymer donor (<i>P</i>_D)-SMA blends effectively reduces <i>P</i>_D-SMA interfacial tensions and stabilizes the interfaces, preventing the coalescence of the phase-separated domains. As a result, desired morphologies with exceptional thermal stability and mechanical robustness are obtained for the <i>P</i>_D-SMA blends. The addition of 20 wt % DACCs affords OSCs with a PCE of 17.1% and a cohesive fracture energy (<i>G</i>_c) of 0.89 J m^-2, higher than those (PCE = 13.6% and <i>G</i>_c = 0.35 J m^-2) for the control OSCs without DACCs. Moreover, at an elevated temperature of 120 °C, the OSCs with 20 wt % DACC exhibit excellent morphological stability, retaining over 95% of the initial PCE after 300 h. In contrast, the control OSCs without the DACC rapidly degraded to below 60% of the initial PCE after 144 h.