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Raja Shahid Ashraf

Bio: Raja Shahid Ashraf is an academic researcher from Government College University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Organic solar cell & Polymer solar cell. The author has an hindex of 43, co-authored 79 publications receiving 8595 citations. Previous affiliations of Raja Shahid Ashraf include Imperial College London & Eindhoven University of Technology.


Papers
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TL;DR: A new non-fullerene acceptor that has been specifically designed to give improved performance alongside the wide bandgap donor poly(3-hexylthiophene), a polymer with significantly better prospects for commercial OPV due to its relative scalability and stability is presented.
Abstract: Solution-processed organic photovoltaics (OPV) offer the attractive prospect of low-cost, light-weight and environmentally benign solar energy production. The highest efficiency OPV at present use low-bandgap donor polymers, many of which suffer from problems with stability and synthetic scalability. They also rely on fullerene-based acceptors, which themselves have issues with cost, stability and limited spectral absorption. Here we present a new non-fullerene acceptor that has been specifically designed to give improved performance alongside the wide bandgap donor poly(3-hexylthiophene), a polymer with significantly better prospects for commercial OPV due to its relative scalability and stability. Thanks to the well-matched optoelectronic and morphological properties of these materials, efficiencies of 6.4% are achieved which is the highest reported for fullerene-free P3HT devices. In addition, dramatically improved air stability is demonstrated relative to other high-efficiency OPV, showing the excellent potential of this new material combination for future technological applications.

1,022 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work demonstrates highly efficient and stable solar cells using a ternary approach, wherein two non-fullerene acceptors are combined with both a scalable and affordable donor polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and a high-efficiency, low-bandgap polymer in a single-layer bulk-heterojunction device.
Abstract: Technological deployment of organic photovoltaic modules requires improvements in device light-conversion efficiency and stability while keeping material costs low. Here we demonstrate highly efficient and stable solar cells using a ternary approach, wherein two non-fullerene acceptors are combined with both a scalable and affordable donor polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and a high-efficiency, low-bandgap polymer in a single-layer bulk-heterojunction device. The addition of a strongly absorbing small molecule acceptor into a P3HT-based non-fullerene blend increases the device efficiency up to 7.7 ± 0.1% without any solvent additives. The improvement is assigned to changes in microstructure that reduce charge recombination and increase the photovoltage, and to improved light harvesting across the visible region. The stability of P3HT-based devices in ambient conditions is also significantly improved relative to polymer:fullerene devices. Combined with a low-bandgap donor polymer (PBDTTT-EFT, also known as PCE10), the two mixed acceptors also lead to solar cells with 11.0 ± 0.4% efficiency and a high open-circuit voltage of 1.03 ± 0.01 V. Ternary organic blends using two non-fullerene acceptors are shown to improve the efficiency and stability of low-cost solar cells based on P3HT and of high-performance photovoltaic devices based on low-bandgap donor polymers.

887 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The synthesis and polymerization of a novel thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole-based monomer is reported, which has a maximum hole mobility of 1.95 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), which is the highest mobility from a polymer-based OFET reported to date.
Abstract: We report the synthesis and polymerization of a novel thieno[3,2-b]thiophene−diketopyrrolopyrrole-based monomer. Copolymerization with thiophene afforded a polymer with a maximum hole mobility of 1.95 cm2 V−1 s−1, which is the highest mobility from a polymer-based OFET reported to date. Bulk-heterojunction solar cells comprising this polymer and PC71BM gave a power conversion efficiency of 5.4%.

861 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: High-performance ambipolar OFETs with balanced hole and electron field-effect mobilities both exceeding 1 cm(2) V (-1) s(-1) are achieved based on a single-solution-processed conjugated polymer, DPPT-TT, upon careful optimization of the device architecture, charge injection, and polymer processing.
Abstract: Ambipolar OFETs with balanced hole and electron field-effect mobilities both exceeding 1 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) are achieved based on a single-solution-processed conjugated polymer, DPPT-TT, upon careful optimization of the device architecture, charge injection, and polymer processing Such high-performance OFETs are promising for applications in ambipolar devices and integrated circuits, as well as model systems for fundamental studies

530 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Non-fullerene acceptors with optimized energy levels enable 10% efficient solar cells with reduced voltage losses <0.6 V.
Abstract: Optimization of the energy levels at the donor–acceptor interface of organic solar cells has driven their efficiencies to above 10%. However, further improvements towards efficiencies comparable with inorganic solar cells remain challenging because of high recombination losses, which empirically limit the open-circuit voltage (Voc) to typically less than 1 V. Here we show that this empirical limit can be overcome using non-fullerene acceptors blended with the low band gap polymer PffBT4T-2DT leading to efficiencies approaching 10% (9.95%). We achieve Voc up to 1.12 V, which corresponds to a loss of only Eg/q − Voc = 0.5 ± 0.01 V between the optical bandgap Eg of the polymer and Voc. This high Voc is shown to be associated with the achievement of remarkably low non-geminate and non-radiative recombination losses in these devices. Suppression of non-radiative recombination implies high external electroluminescence quantum efficiencies which are orders of magnitude higher than those of equivalent devices employing fullerene acceptors. Using the balance between reduced recombination losses and good photocurrent generation efficiencies achieved experimentally as a baseline for simulations of the efficiency potential of organic solar cells, we estimate that efficiencies of up to 20% are achievable if band gaps and fill factors are further optimized.

460 citations


Cited by
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[...]

08 Dec 2001-BMJ
TL;DR: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one, which seems an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.
Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

33,785 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Fluorene-Based Copolymers ContainingPhosphorescent Complexes and Carbazole-Based Conjugated Polymers R5.1.3.
Abstract: -phenylenevinylene)s L4. Fluorene-Based Conjugated Polymers L4.1. Fluorene-Based Copolymers ContainingElectron-Rich MoietiesM4.2. Fluorene-Based Copolymers ContainingElectron-Deficient MoietiesN4.3. Fluorene-Based Copolymers ContainingPhosphorescent ComplexesQ5. Carbazole-Based Conjugated Polymers R5.1. Poly(2,7-carbazole)-Based Polymers R5.2. Indolo[3,2-

3,686 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
17 Apr 2019-Joule
TL;DR: In this paper, a ladder-type electron-deficient core-based central fused ring (Dithienothiophen[3.2-b]- pyrrolobenzothiadiazole) with a benzothiadiadiazoles (BT) core was proposed to fine-tune its absorption and electron affinity.

3,513 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The PBDB-T-SF:IT-4F-based OSC device showed a record high efficiency, and an efficiency of over 12% can be obtained with a thickness of 100-200 nm, suggesting the promise of fullerene-free OSCs in practical applications.
Abstract: A new polymer donor (PBDB-T-SF) and a new small molecule acceptor (IT-4F) for fullerene-free organic solar cells (OSCs) were designed and synthesized The influences of fluorination on the absorption spectra, molecular energy levels, and charge mobilities of the donor and acceptor were systematically studied The PBDB-T-SF:IT-4F-based OSC device showed a record high efficiency of 131%, and an efficiency of over 12% can be obtained with a thickness of 100–200 nm, suggesting the promise of fullerene-free OSCs in practical applications

2,292 citations