On March 3, Dr. Yang Tao, associate researcher of the College of New Materials and New Energies, Shenzhen Technology University (SZTU), published a research paper titled “16% efficiency all-polymer organic solar cells enabled by a finely tuned morphology via the design of ternary blend” in the international journal Joule (JCR Quartile: Q1; Current Journal Impact Factor: 38.9) as the co-first author.

The cover of Joule [Photo/https://www.cell.com/joule/]

In the research, Dr. Tao Yang and his collaborators studies systematically how to enhance both exciton harvesting and charge transport in solar devices from a thermodynamic viewpoint, so as to further improve the efficiency and long-term stability of solar devices and lay a solid foundation for the next industrialization of all-organic photovoltaic devices.

Graphical abstract of the research paper [Photo/https://www.cell.com/joule/]

Although the solar cell market is currently dominated by silicon solar cells, organic solar cells (OSCs) have become a focus of research on the next-generation optoelectronic devices due to its foldability. Particularly, all-polymer organic solar cells (AP-OSCs) are the most promising candidate for commercial application compared with other counterparts in view of their flexibility and stability. However, most AP-OSCs’ power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) are significantly lower than those OSCs based on small molecular acceptors (SMAs) (~14% versus ~17%), which has become the biggest problem restricting AP-OSC’s competitiveness. In the study, the authors successfully build a high-performance ternary active layer consisting of the three polymers PM6, PY-IT, and BN-T, affording a PCE of over 16% (16.09%), which is a significant milestone for AP-OSC research. The full text of the paper can be found at: https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(21)00077-5.

The AP-OSC device with a SZTU logo that can be folded 180 degree [Photo/College of New Materials and New Energies]

Tips: (Some information below is cited from https://www.cell.com/joule/home.)

Joule, one of the four sister journals to Cell, is a distinctive and forward-looking journal published by Cell Press which bridges disciplines and scales of energy research. It was launched in 2017 in memory of the English physicist James Prescott Joule (December 24, 1818- October 11, 1889). The other three journals are One Earth (in geosciences and environmental sciences), Chem (in chemistry) and Matter (in physics).

Drafted by Olivia（赖丽伟）/ International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office

Edited by International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office