Achieving 14.11% efficiency of ternary polymer solar cells by simultaneously optimizing photon harvesting and exciton distribution

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.00% was achieved in PBDB-T:Y16-based polymer solar cells (PSCs). On this basis, PCE of ternary PSCs was improved to 14.11% by incorporating 15 wt% MeIC1 in acceptors, resulting from simultaneously enhanced short circuit current (JSC) of 22.76 mA cm−2 and fill factor (FF) of 68.22%. The observed 14.11% PCE is among the highest values for all ternary PSCs. Y16 and MeIC1 preferred to form an alloyed acceptor due to good compatibility, which is beneficial to the formation of efficient electron transport channels in ternary active layers. Photon harvesting, exciton dissociation and charge transport could be synergistically optimized by incorporating 15 wt% MeIC1 in the acceptors. The optical field and photogenerated exciton distribution in active layers were calculated according to their intrinsic properties, which could provide more intuitive evidence of JSC and FF improvement. The photogenerated exciton distribution in active layers could also be optimized by employing a ternary strategy, which was beneficial for better balance charge collection efficiency and for achieving high FF of the ternary PSCs. This work further demonstrates that ternary strategies have great potential for improving the PSC performance by simultaneously optimizing photon harvesting and photogenerated exciton distribution in active layers.