Guiding Morphology Evolution via Solid‐State Relaxation for Highly Reproducible and Robust Organic Photovoltaics

ABSTRACT Poor device reproducibility and insufficient processing robustness hinder organic photovoltaics (OPVs) industrialization, primarily due to poor morphological reproducibility of the active layer. Here, we establish a direct correlation between the morphology evolution pathway and morphological reproducibility. When evolution is governed by solid‐state relaxation, the active layer converges into energetically similar low‐energy metastable ensembles, yielding highly reproducible morphologies. In contrast, rapid quenching traps the active layer in a broad distribution of low‐energy metastable states, leading to poor morphological reproducibility. This principle is validated through two independent approaches: molecular structure design and additive engineering. Chemically, acceptor dimerization (PM6:DY2) shifts evolution from quenching‐ to relaxation‐dominated, reducing the coefficient of variation ( CV , a reproducibility measure) from 2.14% to 1.19% and increasing the performance figure of merit ( P‐FOM , a robustness measure) from 0.925 to 0.944. Physically, replacing the additive 1,2,4‐TCB with 1,3,5‐TIB delays the evolution of PM6:L8‐BO to the relaxation stage, achieving 19.59% PCE while achieving a record‐low CV of 0.86% (reduced from 1.55%) and increasing P‐FOM from 0.935 to 0.955. These findings establish a general principle: solid‐state relaxation‐dominated evolution leads to morphological convergence and device performance consistency, providing a theoretical basis for rational design toward high reproducibility and robustness in OPVs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-10-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.79386
Primary Topic
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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Guiding Morphology Evolution via Solid‐State Relaxation for Highly Reproducible and Robust Organic Photovoltaics

Chunpeng Song, Wancheng Yu, Rui Zhou, Yan Zhang et al.
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Advanced Functional Materials
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
article

Guiding Morphology Evolution via Solid‐State Relaxation for Highly Reproducible and Robust Organic Photovoltaics

Chunpeng Song, Wancheng Yu, Rui Zhou, Yan Zhang, Bin Tang, Jingming Xin, Zemin He, Qiuju Liang, Jiangang Liu, Zhiguo Zhang, Longjing Wan, Xinpeng Liu, Xiao Yang, Ruikai Yu, Zirui Liu, Chuanhao Zhao
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Poor device reproducibility and insufficient processing robustness hinder organic photovoltaics (OPVs) industrialization, primarily due to poor morphological reproducibility of the active layer. Here, we establish a direct correlation between the morphology evolution pathway and morphological reproducibility. When evolution is governed by solid‐state relaxation, the active layer converges into energetically similar low‐energy metastable ensembles, yielding highly reproducible morphologies. In contrast, rapid quenching traps the active layer in a broad distribution of low‐energy metastable states, leading to poor morphological reproducibility. This principle is validated through two independent approaches: molecular structure design and additive engineering. Chemically, acceptor dimerization (PM6:DY2) shifts evolution from quenching‐ to relaxation‐dominated, reducing the coefficient of variation ( CV , a reproducibility measure) from 2.14% to 1.19% and increasing the performance figure of merit ( P‐FOM , a robustness measure) from 0.925 to 0.944. Physically, replacing the additive 1,2,4‐TCB with 1,3,5‐TIB delays the evolution of PM6:L8‐BO to the relaxation stage, achieving 19.59% PCE while achieving a record‐low CV of 0.86% (reduced from 1.55%) and increasing P‐FOM from 0.935 to 0.955. These findings establish a general principle: solid‐state relaxation‐dominated evolution leads to morphological convergence and device performance consistency, providing a theoretical basis for rational design toward high reproducibility and robustness in OPVs.

Advanced Functional Materials
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Deakin University (AU), Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN), National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (CN), Xijing University (CN), State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering (CN), Beijing University of Chemical Technology (CN)
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Australian Synchrotron, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province
Openalex Percentile: Top 24%
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
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