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Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells
Atul Shukla 
,
Manasi Pranav ,
Guorui He ,
J. Terence Blaskovits ,
Davide Mascione,
Yonglin Cao,
Yufei Gong,
Drew Riley ,
Julian A. Steele ,
Eduardo Solano ,
Alexander Ehm,
Mohammad Saeed Shadabroo,
Ardalan Armin,
Safa Shoaee ,
Dietrich R. T. Zahn ,
Yongfang Li ,
Lei Meng ,
Felix Lang ,
Denis Andrienko,
Dieter Neher
,
Manasi Pranav ,
Guorui He ,
J. Terence Blaskovits ,
Davide Mascione,
Yonglin Cao,
Yufei Gong,
Drew Riley ,
Julian A. Steele ,
Eduardo Solano ,
Alexander Ehm,
Mohammad Saeed Shadabroo,
Ardalan Armin,
Safa Shoaee ,
Dietrich R. T. Zahn ,
Yongfang Li ,
Lei Meng ,
Felix Lang ,
Denis Andrienko,
Dieter Neher
Advanced Energy Materials, Volume: 15, Issue: 32, Start page: 2502398
Swansea University Authors:
Drew Riley , Ardalan Armin
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DOI (Published version): 10.1002/aenm.202502398
Abstract
Discerning loss mechanisms in organic solar cells with narrow optical bandgap is critical for the development of conventional and next‐generation photovoltaic technologies, especially for tandem and semi‐transparent solar cells. Here, all photocurrent losses are quantitatively deconvoluted in two lo...
| Published in: | Advanced Energy Materials |
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| ISSN: | 1614-6832 1614-6840 |
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Wiley
2025
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69652 |
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Here, all photocurrent losses are quantitatively deconvoluted in two low‐bandgap (Eg≈1.23 eV) binary systems using structurally analogous non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs), namely BTPV‐4F‐eC9 and BTPV‐4Cl‐eC9. Bias‐dependent free charge generation and photoluminescence studies pinpoint geminate charge transfer (CT) state recombination as the predominant photocurrent limitation in both systems, compared to parent Y6‐blends. Transient absorption spectroscopy too reveals a critical competition between CT decay and separation dynamics. Theoretical calculations uncover multiple stable molecular conformers that restrict NFA aggregation, aligning with morphological studies, resulting in poor CT separation in photoactive blends. Owing to CT loss pathways, free charge recombination in both low‐bandgap systems is closer to the Langevin limit than in PM6:Y6. Nonetheless, they exhibit overall voltage losses of ≈0.56 V comparable to PM6:Y6, and efficient exciton dissociation despite a lower driving force. Current–voltage simulations show that suppressing geminate losses can vitally balance recombination pathways to unlock photocurrent potential of low‐bandgap blends. Further optimization of the charge carrier mobility would push the PCE >16%, moving the internal quantum efficiency toward the detailed balance limit.</abstract><type>Journal Article</type><journal>Advanced Energy Materials</journal><volume>15</volume><journalNumber>32</journalNumber><paginationStart>2502398</paginationStart><paginationEnd/><publisher>Wiley</publisher><placeOfPublication/><isbnPrint/><isbnElectronic/><issnPrint>1614-6832</issnPrint><issnElectronic>1614-6840</issnElectronic><keywords>detailed balance, DFT calculations, geminate recombination, low bandgap, organic solar cells, photocurrent losses</keywords><publishedDay>26</publishedDay><publishedMonth>8</publishedMonth><publishedYear>2025</publishedYear><publishedDate>2025-08-26</publishedDate><doi>10.1002/aenm.202502398</doi><url/><notes/><college>COLLEGE NANME</college><department>Biosciences Geography and Physics School</department><CollegeCode>COLLEGE CODE</CollegeCode><DepartmentCode>BGPS</DepartmentCode><institution>Swansea University</institution><apcterm>Another institution paid the OA fee</apcterm><funders>The authors acknowledge funding support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the projects Fabulous (Project Number 450968074), Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640) and Popular (Project Number 461909888). D.A. acknowledges funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) for financial support through collaborative research centers (Grant Nos. TRR 146, SPP 2196, and 460766640). J.T.B and D.A. acknowledge support from the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award Nos. OSR-2018-CARF/CCF-3079 and OSR-CRG2018-3746. J.A.S. acknowledges financial support from the Australian Research Council (DE230100173). GIWAXS experiments were performed at NCD-SWEET beamline at ALBA synchrotron with the collaboration of ALBA staff. F.L. thanks the Volkswagen Foundation for funding through the Freigeist Program. D.B.R and A.A. acknowledge the financial support through the Welsh Government's Sêr Cymru II Program “Sustainable Advanced Materials” (Welsh European Funding Office – European Regional Development Fund) and by UKRI through the EPSRC Program Grant EP/T028513/1 Application Targeted and Integrated Photovoltaics and the UKRI Research England RPIF Programme (Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials). 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2025-10-17T11:15:05.3513873 v2 69652 2025-06-09 Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells edca1c48f922393fa2b3cb84d8dc0e4a 0000-0001-6688-0694 Drew Riley Drew Riley true false 22b270622d739d81e131bec7a819e2fd Ardalan Armin Ardalan Armin true false 2025-06-09 BGPS Discerning loss mechanisms in organic solar cells with narrow optical bandgap is critical for the development of conventional and next‐generation photovoltaic technologies, especially for tandem and semi‐transparent solar cells. Here, all photocurrent losses are quantitatively deconvoluted in two low‐bandgap (Eg≈1.23 eV) binary systems using structurally analogous non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs), namely BTPV‐4F‐eC9 and BTPV‐4Cl‐eC9. Bias‐dependent free charge generation and photoluminescence studies pinpoint geminate charge transfer (CT) state recombination as the predominant photocurrent limitation in both systems, compared to parent Y6‐blends. Transient absorption spectroscopy too reveals a critical competition between CT decay and separation dynamics. Theoretical calculations uncover multiple stable molecular conformers that restrict NFA aggregation, aligning with morphological studies, resulting in poor CT separation in photoactive blends. Owing to CT loss pathways, free charge recombination in both low‐bandgap systems is closer to the Langevin limit than in PM6:Y6. Nonetheless, they exhibit overall voltage losses of ≈0.56 V comparable to PM6:Y6, and efficient exciton dissociation despite a lower driving force. Current–voltage simulations show that suppressing geminate losses can vitally balance recombination pathways to unlock photocurrent potential of low‐bandgap blends. Further optimization of the charge carrier mobility would push the PCE >16%, moving the internal quantum efficiency toward the detailed balance limit. Journal Article Advanced Energy Materials 15 32 2502398 Wiley 1614-6832 1614-6840 detailed balance, DFT calculations, geminate recombination, low bandgap, organic solar cells, photocurrent losses 26 8 2025 2025-08-26 10.1002/aenm.202502398 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee The authors acknowledge funding support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) through the projects Fabulous (Project Number 450968074), Extraordinaire (Project Number 460766640) and Popular (Project Number 461909888). D.A. acknowledges funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) for financial support through collaborative research centers (Grant Nos. TRR 146, SPP 2196, and 460766640). J.T.B and D.A. acknowledge support from the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award Nos. OSR-2018-CARF/CCF-3079 and OSR-CRG2018-3746. J.A.S. acknowledges financial support from the Australian Research Council (DE230100173). GIWAXS experiments were performed at NCD-SWEET beamline at ALBA synchrotron with the collaboration of ALBA staff. F.L. thanks the Volkswagen Foundation for funding through the Freigeist Program. D.B.R and A.A. acknowledge the financial support through the Welsh Government's Sêr Cymru II Program “Sustainable Advanced Materials” (Welsh European Funding Office – European Regional Development Fund) and by UKRI through the EPSRC Program Grant EP/T028513/1 Application Targeted and Integrated Photovoltaics and the UKRI Research England RPIF Programme (Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials). Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. 2025-10-17T11:15:05.3513873 2025-06-09T13:31:11.4856650 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Physics Atul Shukla 0000-0001-7453-5815 1 Manasi Pranav 0000-0002-0733-4121 2 Guorui He 0009-0005-2395-8742 3 J. Terence Blaskovits 0000-0002-1452-5508 4 Davide Mascione 5 Yonglin Cao 6 Yufei Gong 7 Drew Riley 0000-0001-6688-0694 8 Julian A. Steele 0000-0001-7982-4413 9 Eduardo Solano 0000-0002-2348-2271 10 Alexander Ehm 11 Mohammad Saeed Shadabroo 12 Ardalan Armin 13 Safa Shoaee 0000-0001-5754-834X 14 Dietrich R. T. Zahn 0000-0002-8455-4582 15 Yongfang Li 0000-0002-2565-2748 16 Lei Meng 0000-0003-2775-362X 17 Felix Lang 0000-0001-9711-380X 18 Denis Andrienko 19 Dieter Neher 0000-0001-6618-8403 20 69652__34425__eb48d1590b16490a8e92588792ef36ad.pdf 69652.VOR.pdf 2025-06-09T13:38:50.0014058 Output 1994941 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| title |
Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells |
| spellingShingle |
Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells Drew Riley Ardalan Armin |
| title_short |
Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells |
| title_full |
Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells |
| title_fullStr |
Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells |
| title_sort |
Discerning Performance Bottlenecks of State‐of‐the‐Art Narrow Bandgap Organic Solar Cells |
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edca1c48f922393fa2b3cb84d8dc0e4a 22b270622d739d81e131bec7a819e2fd |
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edca1c48f922393fa2b3cb84d8dc0e4a_***_Drew Riley 22b270622d739d81e131bec7a819e2fd_***_Ardalan Armin |
| author |
Drew Riley Ardalan Armin |
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Atul Shukla Manasi Pranav Guorui He J. Terence Blaskovits Davide Mascione Yonglin Cao Yufei Gong Drew Riley Julian A. Steele Eduardo Solano Alexander Ehm Mohammad Saeed Shadabroo Ardalan Armin Safa Shoaee Dietrich R. T. Zahn Yongfang Li Lei Meng Felix Lang Denis Andrienko Dieter Neher |
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Advanced Energy Materials |
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2502398 |
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1614-6832 1614-6840 |
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10.1002/aenm.202502398 |
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Wiley |
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Faculty of Science and Engineering |
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Discerning loss mechanisms in organic solar cells with narrow optical bandgap is critical for the development of conventional and next‐generation photovoltaic technologies, especially for tandem and semi‐transparent solar cells. Here, all photocurrent losses are quantitatively deconvoluted in two low‐bandgap (Eg≈1.23 eV) binary systems using structurally analogous non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs), namely BTPV‐4F‐eC9 and BTPV‐4Cl‐eC9. Bias‐dependent free charge generation and photoluminescence studies pinpoint geminate charge transfer (CT) state recombination as the predominant photocurrent limitation in both systems, compared to parent Y6‐blends. Transient absorption spectroscopy too reveals a critical competition between CT decay and separation dynamics. Theoretical calculations uncover multiple stable molecular conformers that restrict NFA aggregation, aligning with morphological studies, resulting in poor CT separation in photoactive blends. Owing to CT loss pathways, free charge recombination in both low‐bandgap systems is closer to the Langevin limit than in PM6:Y6. Nonetheless, they exhibit overall voltage losses of ≈0.56 V comparable to PM6:Y6, and efficient exciton dissociation despite a lower driving force. Current–voltage simulations show that suppressing geminate losses can vitally balance recombination pathways to unlock photocurrent potential of low‐bandgap blends. Further optimization of the charge carrier mobility would push the PCE >16%, moving the internal quantum efficiency toward the detailed balance limit. |
| published_date |
2025-08-26T05:28:46Z |
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1851097901897351168 |
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11.444473 |