Proceedings of MATSUS23 & Sustainable Technology Forum València (STECH23) (MATSUS23)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.197
Publication date: 22nd December 2022
We address here the long-standing quest to gain broadly applicable understanding of the structure formation of donor:acceptor blends that are used in organic solar cells, leading generally to a rich phase morphology where intermixed and neat phases of the donor and acceptor material co-exist. This is especially true for blends with non-fullerene acceptors because NFAs often display different polymorphs; moreover, their glassy states can be highly complex. Here we show that some donor polymer:non-fullerene acceptor blends comprise two different populations of glassy phases: a molecularly intermixed and an ITIC-rich one. This picture assists to understand the performance of some of these systems when used in solar cells; it also allows us to establish a tentative picture of the complex correlation of structure and electronic landscape for the understanding of organic photovoltaic cells. Our works furthermore highlights the challenges that are faced when using next generation materials, especially if long-term stability is sought.