Study of a ternary blend system for bulk heterojunction thin film solar cells

In this research, we report a bulk heterojunction（BHJ） solar cell consisting of a ternary blend system. Poly（3-hexylthiophene） P3 HT is used as a donor and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methylester（PCBM） plays the role of acceptor whereas vanadyl 2,9,16,23-tetraphenoxy-29 H, 31H-phthalocyanine（VOPc Ph O） is selected as an ambipolar transport material. The materials are selected and assembled in such a fashion that the generated charge carriers could efficiently be transported rightwards within the blend. The organic BHJ solar cells consist of ITO/PEDOT：PSS/ternary BHJ blend/Al structure. The power conversion efficiencies of the ITO/ PEDOT：PSS/P3HT：PCBM/Al and ITO/PEDOT：PSS/P3HT：PCBM：VOPcPhO/Al solar cells are found to be 2.3% and 3.4%, respectively.

Ternary blend strategy in benzotriazole-based organic photovoltaics for indoor application

Organic photovoltaics(OPVs)suitable for application in indoor lighting environments can power a wide range of internet of things(Io T)related electronic devices.The ternary structure has huge advantages in improving the photovoltaic performance of OPVs,including broadening the light absorption,improving the charge transport,manipulating the energy loss(E_(loss))and so on.Herein,we use wide-bandgap photo-active materials,including the benzotriazole-based polymer donor(J52-F),chlorinated polymer donor(PM7)and A_(2)-A_1-D-A_1-A_(2)-structured acceptor(BTA3),to construct ternary OPVs for indoor light applications.Benefitting from the introduction of PM7 as the third component in J52-F:BTA3-based blend,a gratifying PCE of 20.04%with a high V_(OC)of 1.00 V can be obtained under the test conditions with an illumination of 300 lx from an LED lighting source with a color temperature of 3000 K.The excellent device performance is inseparable from the matched spectrum,enhanced light absorption and the reduced E_(loss),while the improved charge transport capability and suppression of carrier recombination also play an indelible role.Our work shows a potential material system to meet the requirement of devices applied under indoor light.Moreover,these findings demonstrate that designing multi-component OPVs is indeed a feasible way to further improve the performances of the photovoltaic energy conversion system for indoor applications.

Experimental Investigation on Macro Spray Characteristics of Octanol-Biodiesel-Diesel Ternary Fuel Blend

This study investigates the spray characteristics of ternary blends composed of octanol, biodiesel, and diesel fuel.Experiments are conducted using six materials to examine the variation in spray characteristic and to verify and compare a previously established spray tip penetration model with a modified model. The results show that the addition of OB100(30%of octanol, 70% of biodiesel) improves the spray characteristics of the fuel. Specifically, the addition of 10% or 20% of OB100 leads to a slight increase in the spray tip penetration, average spray cone angle, maximum spray width, and the spray area of the fuel blend;however, further addition of OB100 causes a corresponding decrease in these parameters. Based on previous research, this study uses kinematic viscosity instead of dynamic viscosity and density to modify the prediction model of spray tip penetration. The modified model exhibits a better fit quality and agreement with the experimental data,making it more suitable for predicting the spray tip penetration of fuel blends compared to the Hiroyasu-Arai model.

DR3TBDTT Based Ternary Blends Containing Conjugated Polymers： Crystallization Determines Morphology and Performance

How the conjugated polymers affect the crystallization of DR3TBDTT, in addition to the corresponding morphology and performance, is not well understood. In this work, the weakly crystalline polymer PTB7-Th and highly crystalline polymers of PCDTBT and P3HT were incorporated into DR3TBDTT：PC71BM system to investigate the variation of crystallization, morphology and performance. It is demonstrated that PTB7-Th is the most effective additive to improve the PCE value of DR3TBDTT：PC71BM to 5.7%, showing the nucleating agent reducing the crystallization correlation length （CCL） value of DR3TBDTT from 18.7 nm to 17.0 rim, in addition to the optimized morphology. In contrast, the PCDTBT and P3HT could induce the crystallization of DR3TBDTT, leading to much higher CCL value as well as obvious phase separation. Despite of energy level alignment, the crystallization of DR3TBDTT influenced by polymers determines the corresponding morphology of active layers and photovoltaic performance.

Solar cells based on the poly(N-vinylcarbazole):porphyrin:tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminium blend system

Organic solar cells based on poly（N-vinylcarbazole） （PVK）： porphyrin： tris （8-hydroxyquinolinato） aluminium （Alq3） blend p-n junction systems have been fabricated in this work. The roles of the different components in the blend system and of the amount of porphyrin have been investigated. The 5, 10, 15, 20-tetraphenylporphyrin （TPP） and 5, 10, 15, 20-tetra（o-chloro）phenylporphyrinato-copper （CuTC1PP） are used in the solar cells. The results show that TPP is better than CuTC1PP in enhancing the performance of PVK：Alq3 solar cells. When the weight ratio of PVK：TPP：Alq3 is 1：1.5：1, the best performance of solar cell is obtained. The open circuit voltage （Voc） is 0.87 V, and the short circuit current （Jsc） is 17.5 μA·cm-2. In the ternary bulk hereojunction system, the device may be regarded as a cascade of three devices of PVK：TPP, TPP：Alq3 and PVK：Alq3. PVK, TPP and Alq3 can improve the hole mobility, light absorption intensity and electron mobility of the ternary bulk hereojunction system, respectively.

Highly efficient ternary organic solar cells with excellent open-circuit voltage and fill factor via precisely tuning molecular stacking and morphology

The micro-morphology and molecular stacking play a key role in determining the charge transport process and nonradiative energy loss, thus impacting the performances of organic solar cells(OSCs). To address this issue, a non-fullerene acceptor PhC6-IC-F with alkylbenzene side-chain, possessing optimized molecular stacking, complementary absorption spectra and forming a cascade energy level alignment in the PM6:BTP-eC9 blend, is introduced as guest acceptor to improve efficiency of ternary OSCs. The bulky phenyl in the side-chain can regulate crystallinity and optimizing phase separation between receptors in ternary blend films, resulting in the optimal phase separations in the ternary films. As a result, high efficiencies of 18.33% as photovoltaic layer are obtained for PhC6-IC-F-based ternary devices with excellent fill factor(FF) of 78.92%. Impressively, the ternary system produces a significantly improved open circuit voltage(V_(oc)) of 0.857 V compared with the binary device,contributing to the reduced density of trap states and suppressed non-radiative recombination result in lower energy loss. This work demonstrates an effective approach for adjusting the aggregation, molecular packing and fine phase separation morphology to increase V_(oc) and FF, paving the way toward high-efficiency OSCs.

Microstructure evolution of laser solid forming of Ti-Al-V ternary system alloys from blended elemental powders

Morphology evolution of prior β grains of laser solid forming （LSF） Ti-xAl-yV （x 11,y 20） alloys from blended elemental powders is investigated. The formation mechanism of grain morphology is revealed by incorporating columnar to equiaxed transition （CET） mechanism during solidification. The morphology of prior β grains of LSF Ti-6Al-yV changes from columnar to equiaxed grains with increasing element V content from 4 to 20 wt.-%. This agrees well with CET theoretical prediction. Likewise, the grain morphology of LSF Ti-xAl-2V from blended elemental powders changes from large columnar to small equiaxed with increasing Al content from 2 to 11 wt.-%. The macro-morphologies of LSF Ti-8Al-2V and Ti-11Al-2V from blended elemental powders do not agree with CET predictions. This is caused by the increased disturbance effects of mixing enthalpy with increasing Al content, generated in the alloying process of Ti, Al, and V in the molten pool.

Host-Guest Strategy Enabling Nonhalogenated Solvent Processing for High-Performance All-Polymer Hosted Solar Cells

The power conversion efficiencies(PCEs)of all-polymer solar cells(all-PSCs),usually processed from low-boiling-point and toxic sol-vents,have reached high values of 18%.However,poor miscibility and uncontrollable crystallinity in polymer blends lead to a nota-ble drop in the PCEs when using green solvents,limiting the practical development of all-PSCs.Herein,a third component(guest)BTO was employed to optimize the miscibility and enhance the crystallinity of PM6/PY2Se-F host film processed from green solvent toluene(TL),which can effectively suppress the excessive aggregation of PY2Se-F and facilitate a nano-scale interpenetrating net-work morphology for exciton dissociation and charge transport.As a result,TL-processed all-polymer hosted solar cells(all-PHSCs)exhibited an impressive PCE of 17.01%.Moreover,the strong molecular interaction between the host and guest molecules also en-hances the thermal stability of the devices.Our host-guest strategy provides a unique approach to developing high-efficiency and stable all-PHSCs processed from green solvents,paving the way for the industrial development of all-PHSCs.

Improving photovoltaic parameters of all-polymer solar cells through integrating two polymeric donors

The incorporation of an additional component into the bulk-heterojunction light-harvesting layer of polymer solar cells has been considered as an effective strategy to enhance photovoltaic performance.Here we demonstrated that the photovoltaic parameters of all-polymer solar cells could be enhanced upon replacing a certain ratio of electron-donating polymer PTz BI-o F with a widely used wide-bandgap polymer donor PM6.The photoluminescent characterizations confirmed the F?rster resonance energy transfer from incorporated PM6 to PTz BI-o F.Moreover,the combination of Fourier-transform photocurrent spectroscopy and electroluminescence external quantum efficiencies measurements demonstrated reduced non-radiative recombination energy loss upon the incorporation of PM6,resulting in a slightly enhanced open-circuit voltage of 0.88 V of the ternary cell regarding the binary PTz BI-o F:PFA1 device.The optimized ternary blend devices comprising of PTz BI-o F:PM6:PFA1 presented an impressively high power conversion efficiency of 16.3%,and the efficiency remains 15%on a device with an enlarged effective area of 1 cm^(2),demonstrating the great potential of these all-PSCs for potential applications.