Performance enhancement of block-copolymer solar cells through tapering the donor–acceptor interface: A multiscale study

Tapered block copolymers offer an exciting opportunity to tailor the interfacial region between different components by conserving their phase-separated mesoscale structure, which enable the generation of polymer systems with the desired spatio-dynamic properties. Here, we explore their usefulness for optimizing the photovoltaic performance of polymer bulk heterojunctions. To this end, we apply a recently developed particle-based multiscale solar-cell algorithm and investigate the effect of random tapering at the chemical junctions between the electron-donor- (D) and electron-acceptor- (A) blocks on the photovoltaic properties of various lamellar-like polyfluorene-based block-copolymer systems. Our simulation results reveal that introducing a tapered middle block with optimal length leads to a significant increase of the exciton dissociation efficiency, but deteriorates the charge transport efficiency only moderately. This results in a gain of the internal quantum efficiency from 25 up to 39% by increasing the thickness of the active layer of the solar cell from 10 up to 50 nm in direction to the DA interface.