Control of carrier mobilities for performance enhancement of anthracene-based polymer solar cells

High performance organic solar cells were realized using an anthracene-based polymer. Charge carrier mobilities of both electrons and holes in solvent annealed polymer and fullerene derivative mixtures were studied using organic field-effect transistors. Fine tuning of donor to acceptor ratios revealed optimum conditions for balanced mobilities, which led to a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.02% in the organic solar cells. A methanol wash approach further enhanced the PCE to 4.65%. This work demonstrates the importance of carrier transport control in optimizing the performance of polymer solar cells.