Insulator polymer matrix construction on all-small-molecule photoactive blend towards extrapolated 15000 hour T₈₀ stable devices

Abstract

To boost the stability of all-small-molecule (ASM) organic photovoltaic (OPV) blends, an insulator polymer called styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS) as morphology stabilizer is applied into the host system of small molecules BM-ClEH:BO-4Cl. Minor addition of SEBS (1 mg/ml in host solution) provides a significantly enhanced T80 value of 15000 hours (extrapolated), surpassing doping-free (0 mg/ml) and heavy doping (10 mg/ml) counterparts (900 hours, 30 hours). The material reproducibility and cost-effectiveness of the active layer will not be affected by this industrially available polymer, where the power conversion efficiency (PCE) can be well maintained at 15.02%, which is still a decent value for non-halogen solvent-treated ASM OPV. Morphological and photophysical characterizations clearly demonstrate SEBS's pivotal effect on suppressing the degradation of donor molecules and blend film's crystallization/aggregation reorganization, which protects the exciton dynamics effectively. This work pays meaningful attention to the ASM system stability, performs a smart strategy to suppress the film morphology degradation, and releases a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of device performance reduction.