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Filate T, Lee S, Franco LR, Chen Q, Genene Z, Marchiori CFN, Lee Y, Araujo M, Mammo W, Woo HY, Kim BJ, Wang E. Aqueous Processed All-Polymer Solar Cells with High Open-Circuit Voltage Based on Low-Cost Thiophene-Quinoxaline Polymers. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2024; 16:12886-12896. [PMID: 38425182 PMCID: PMC10941072 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c18994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
Eco-friendly solution processing and the low-cost synthesis of photoactive materials are important requirements for the commercialization of organic solar cells (OSCs). Although varieties of aqueous-soluble acceptors have been developed, the availability of aqueous-processable polymer donors remains quite limited. In particular, the generally shallow highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels of existing polymer donors limit further increases in the power conversion efficiency (PCE). Here, we design and synthesize two water/alcohol-processable polymer donors, poly[(thiophene-2,5-diyl)-alt-(2-((13-(2,5,8,11-tetraoxadodecyl)-2,5,8,11-tetraoxatetradecan-14-yl)oxy)-6,7-difluoroquinoxaline-5,8-diyl)] (P(Qx8O-T)) and poly[(selenophene-2,5-diyl)-alt-(2-((13-(2,5,8,11-tetraoxadodecyl)-2,5,8,11-tetraoxatetradecan-14-yl)oxy)-6,7-difluoroquinoxaline-5,8-diyl)] (P(Qx8O-Se)) with oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) side chains, having deep HOMO energy levels (∼-5.4 eV). The synthesis of the polymers is achieved in a few synthetic and purification steps at reduced cost. The theoretical calculations uncover that the dielectric environmental variations are responsible for the observed band gap lowering in OEG-based polymers compared to their alkylated counterparts. Notably, the aqueous-processed all-polymer solar cells (aq-APSCs) based on P(Qx8O-T) and poly[(N,N'-bis(3-(2-(2-(2-methoxyethoxy)-ethoxy)ethoxy)-2-((2-(2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethoxy)ethoxy)-methyl)propyl)naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-diyl)-alt-(2,5-thiophene)] (P(NDIDEG-T)) active layer exhibit a PCE of 2.27% and high open-circuit voltage (VOC) approaching 0.8 V, which are among the highest values for aq-APSCs reported to date. This study provides important clues for the design of low-cost, aqueous-processable polymer donors and the fabrication of aqueous-processable OSCs with high VOC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tadele
T. Filate
- Department
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers
University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
- Department
of Chemistry, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 33658, 1000 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Seungjin Lee
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 34141 Daejeon, Republic of Korea
- Energy
Materials Research Center, Korea Research
Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), 34114 Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Leandro R. Franco
- Department
of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University, 65188 Karlstad, Sweden
| | - Qiaonan Chen
- Department
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers
University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
| | - Zewdneh Genene
- Department
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers
University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
| | | | - Yoonjoo Lee
- Department
of Chemistry, Korea University, 02841 Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Moyses Araujo
- Department
of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University, 65188 Karlstad, Sweden
- Materials
Theory Division, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Wendimagegn Mammo
- Department
of Chemistry, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 33658, 1000 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Han Young Woo
- Department
of Chemistry, Korea University, 02841 Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Bumjoon J. Kim
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 34141 Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Ergang Wang
- Department
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers
University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
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Chen Z, Man L, Liu J, Lu L, Yang Z, Yang Y. Vegetable Oil-Based Waterborne Polyurethane as Eco-Binders for Sulfur Cathodes in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries. Macromol Rapid Commun 2021; 42:e2100342. [PMID: 34347319 DOI: 10.1002/marc.202100342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2021] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) suffer from well-known fast capacity losses despite their extremely high theoretical capacity and energy density. These losses are caused by dissolution of lithium polysulfide (LiPS) in ether-based electrolytes and have become the main bottleneck to widespread applications of LSBs. Therefore, there is a significant need for electrode materials that have a strong adsorption capacity for LiPS. Herein, a waterborne polyurethane (WPUN) containing sulfamic acid (NH2 SO3 H) polymer is designed and synthesized as an aqueous-based, ecofriendly binder by neutralizing sulfamic acid with a tung oil-based polyurethane prepolymer. UV-vis spectroscopy shows that the WPUN strongly immobilizes LiPS and thus is an effective inhibitor of the LiPS. Moreover, the WPUN binder has excellent adhesive and mechanical properties that improve the integrity of sulfur cathodes. The WPUN-based cathodes exhibit a significant improvement in their specific capacity and maintain a capacity of 617 mAh g-1 after 200 cycles at 0.5C. Besides, the LSBs assembled with the WPUN-based cathodes show good rate performance from 0.2C (737 mAh g-1 ) to 4C (586 mAh g-1 ), which is significantly higher than that of LSBs assembled with a commercial polymer binder. The structural design of the presented binder provides a new perspective for obtaining high-performance LSBs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhuzuan Chen
- Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Limin Man
- Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Ju Liu
- Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Liangmei Lu
- Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Zhuohong Yang
- Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Yu Yang
- Key Laboratory for Biobased Materials and Energy of Ministry of Education, College of Materials and Energy, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
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