All-polymer solar cells with 3.3% efficiency based on naphthalene diimide-selenophene copolymer acceptor

The lack of suitable acceptor (n-type) polymers has limited the photocurrent and efficiency of polymer/polymer bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. Here, we report an evaluation of three naphthalene diimide (NDI) copolymers as electron acceptors in BHJ solar cells which finds that all-polymer solar cells based on an NDI-selenophene copolymer (PNDIS-HD) acceptor and a thiazolothiazole copolymer (PSEHTT) donor exhibit a record 3.3% power conversion efficiency. The observed short circuit current density of 7.78 mA/cm ² and external quantum efficiency of 47% are also the best such photovoltaic parameters seen in all-polymer solar cells so far. This efficiency is comparable to the performance of similarly evaluated [6,6]-Phenyl-C ₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₆₀BM)/PSEHTT devices. The lamellar crystalline morphology of PNDIS-HD, leading to balanced electron and hole transport in the polymer/polymer blend solar cells accounts for its good photovoltaic properties.