Elucidating the origin of open‐circuit voltage in ternary organic solar cells with a nonfullerene and a fullerene acceptor

Abstract With organic solar cells surpassing 20% efficiency, the focus is shifting toward understanding the more complex mechanisms in ternary blends. This work investigates the distinct working principles of ternary organic solar cells based on a polymer donor (D) and a nonfullerene acceptor (NFA), with a fullerene acceptor (FA) as the third component. A systematic comparison between ternary D:NFA:FA systems, with different components and compositions, and D:NFA:NFA systems was conducted. In all systems, the open‐circuit voltage increased with a higher fullerene ratio, correlating with the fullerene's LUMO position, indicating its involvement in charge transfer (CT) state formation. Various analytical methods and simulations reveal that the investigated D:NFA:FA systems follow an alloy model, where the CT state is delocalized over both acceptors, even in systems with strong surface energy differences between the acceptors. Notably, recombination behavior is largely unaffected by the nature of the third component and is primarily linked to the CT state energy. Based on the internal quantum efficiency characteristics, we propose that the positive effect of fullerenes as third components arises not from reduced nonradiative recombination as often suggested but from more efficient exciton splitting. image

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Publication Details

Journal
InfoMat
Published
2026-01-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/inf2.70109
Primary Topic
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Elucidating the origin of open‐circuit voltage in ternary organic solar cells with a nonfullerene and a fullerene acceptor

Salvador León, Thomas Bein, Pavel Chábera, Ali Shuaib et al.
InfoMat
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
article

Elucidating the origin of open‐circuit voltage in ternary organic solar cells with a nonfullerene and a fullerene acceptor

Salvador León, Thomas Bein, Pavel Chábera, Ali Shuaib, Rik Hooijer, Marcella Günther, Tõnu Pullerits, Andreas Weis, Wolfgang Tress, Dominic Blätte, Lucie Quincke, Tayebeh Ameri, Jose D. Perea, Carlito S. Ponseca, Miguel A. T. Cachafeiro
article en

Abstract

Abstract With organic solar cells surpassing 20% efficiency, the focus is shifting toward understanding the more complex mechanisms in ternary blends. This work investigates the distinct working principles of ternary organic solar cells based on a polymer donor (D) and a nonfullerene acceptor (NFA), with a fullerene acceptor (FA) as the third component. A systematic comparison between ternary D:NFA:FA systems, with different components and compositions, and D:NFA:NFA systems was conducted. In all systems, the open‐circuit voltage increased with a higher fullerene ratio, correlating with the fullerene's LUMO position, indicating its involvement in charge transfer (CT) state formation. Various analytical methods and simulations reveal that the investigated D:NFA:FA systems follow an alloy model, where the CT state is delocalized over both acceptors, even in systems with strong surface energy differences between the acceptors. Notably, recombination behavior is largely unaffected by the nature of the third component and is primarily linked to the CT state energy. Based on the internal quantum efficiency characteristics, we propose that the positive effect of fullerenes as third components arises not from reduced nonradiative recombination as often suggested but from more efficient exciton splitting. image

InfoMatVol. 8(2)
Gulf University for Science & Technology (KW), Lund University (SE), Center for NanoScience (DE), Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Kiel (DE), Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (DE), Kuwait University (KW), Municipality of Medellín (CO), Technical University of Munich (DE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ES)
Solar Technologies go Hybrid, Laserlab-Europe, European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 96%
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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