Effect of solvent additive and ethanol treatment on the performance of PIDTDTQx:PC₇₁BM polymer solar cells

Solvent additive 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) is not almighty for improving the performance of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this paper, the effect of solvent additive DIO and ethanol treatment on the performance of polymer solar cells (PSCs) with poly{[4,9-dihydro-4,4,9,9-tetra(4-hexylbenzyl)-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b′]-dithiophene-2,7-diyl]-alt-[2,3-bis(3-(octyloxy)phenyl)-2,3-dihydro-quinoxaline-2,2′-diyl] (PIDTDTQx) and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₇₁BM) as the active layer was investigated. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) was decreased from 4.57% to 1.96% by adding 4 vol% DIO solvent additive for the active layer processed with 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) as solvent. The negative effect of DIO on PCE from 1.94% to 1.18% of PSCs processed with chlorobenzene (CB) as solvent was further demonstrated. The PCE values of PSCs with DIO additive can be effectively increased from 1.96% to 3.71% for DCB as solvent and from 1.18% to 1.89% for CB as solvent by ethanol treatment on the active layer. The crystalline and morphology of active layers play the key role in determining the performance of PSCs.