High-efficiency organic solar cells prepared using a halogen-free solution process

Although the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices has recently improved to more than 16%, halogenated solution processes are typically employed to obtain optimal performance. However, halogenated processing is harmful to health and the environment, which can be a significant obstacle to commercialization. Therefore, development of active materials processable under halogen-free conditions is of great importance in this field. In this study, a 16.04% OPV device, processed under halogen-free conditions, is developed by employing a new active-blend system, PBDTTPD-HT:BTP-2F-BO. It is highly soluble in halogen-free solvents, forming a preferential bulk-heterojunction morphology. The PBDTTPD-HT:BTP-2F-BO device achieves a PCE comparable with current state-of-the-art devices based on PBDB-TF:BTP-4F (also known as PM6:Y6) using a conventional halogenated process (16.40% versus 16.33%). Furthermore, it demonstrates a significantly higher PCE than the PBDB-TF:BTP-4F device with a halogen-free process (16.04% versus 9.70%).