Ternary polymer solar cell based on two donors and one acceptor for improving morphology and power conversion efficiency

• Isoindigo-based copolymers were used to optimize the morphology in ternary blend system.
• The nanophase morphology of blend film was characterization by AFM and TEM.
• The ternary blend with two donors and one acceptor showed the highest PCE in Polymer solar cell.

We synthesized isoindigo-based two donor-acceptor (D-A) copolymers to optimize the morphology in ternary blend films with two p-type polymers and n-type phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM). Compared to binary systems with a single copolymer and PC61BM, the ternary polymer solar cell with two copolymers and PC61BM showed highly enhanced power conversion efficiency of 5.13% with a high short circuit current of 13.23 mA cm−2. These results were supported by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations of the surface and internal morphology of the thin film, respectively.

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