End-group modulation of phenazine based non-fullerene acceptors for efficient organic solar cells with high open-circuit voltage

Phenazine-based non-fullerene acceptors(NFAs)have demonstrated great potential in improving the power conversion efficiency(PCE)of organic solar cells(OSCs).Halogenation is known to be an effective strategy for increasing optical absorption,refining energy levels,and improving molecular packing in organic semiconductors.Herein,a series of NFAs(Pz IC-4H,Pz IC-4F,Pz IC-4Cl,Pz IC-2Br)with phenazine as the central core and with/without halogen-substituted(dicyanomethylidene)-indan-1-one(IC)as the electron-accepting end group were synthesized,and the effect of end group matched phenazine central unit on the photovoltaic performance was systematically studied.Synergetic photophysical and morphological analyses revealed that the PM6:Pz IC-4F blend involves efficient exciton dissociation,higher charge collection and transfer rates,better crystallinity,and optimal phase separation.Therefore,OSCs based on PM6:Pz IC-4F as the active layer exhibited a PCE of 16.48%with an open circuit voltage(Voc)and energy loss of 0.880 V and 0.53 e V,respectively.Accordingly,this work demonstrated a promising approach by designing phenazine-based NFAs for achieving high-performance OSCs.

π-Extension and chlorination of non-fullerene acceptors enable more readily processable and sustainable high-performance organic solar cells

Organic solar cells(OSCs)processed without halogenated solvents and complex treatments are essential for future commercialization.Herein,we report three novel small molecule acceptors(NFAs)consisting of a Y6-like core but withπ-extended naphthalene with progressively more chlorinated end-capping groups and a longer branched chain on the Nitrogen atom.These NFAs exhibit good solubilities in nonchlorinated organic solvents,broad optical absorptions,closeπ-πstacking distances(3.63–3.84A),and high electron mobilities(~10^(-3)cm^(2)V^(-1)s^(-1)).The o-xylene processed and as-cast binary devices using PM6 as the donor polymer exhibit a PCE increasing upon progressive chlorination of the naphthalene end-capping group from 8.93%for YN to 14.38%for YN-Cl to 15.00%for YN-2Cl.Furthermore similarly processed ternary OSCs were fabricated by employing YN-Cl and YN-2Cl as the third component of PM6:CH1007 blends(PCE=15.75%).Compared to all binary devices,the ternary PM6:CH1007:YN-Cl(1:1:0.2)and PM6:CH1007:YN-2Cl(1:1:0.2)cells exhibit significantly improved PCEs of 16.49%and15.88%,respectively,which are among the highest values reported to date for non-halogenated solvent processed OSCs without using any additives and blend post-deposition treatments.

A new non-fullerene acceptor based on the heptacyclic benzotriazole unit for efficient organic solar cells

Non-fullerene acceptors(NFAs)become an interesting family of organic photovoltaic materials,and have attracted considerable interest for their great potential in manufacturing large-area flexible solar panels by low cost coating methods[1–5].Recently,our group proposed in the first time an A-DA’D-A molecular strategy and synthesized a new class of non-fullerene acceptor Y6 with a record efficiency above 15%with single junction organic solar cells(OSCs)[6].To further improve the photovoltaic performance of OSCs,many effective strategies have been successfully explored,such as side-chain engineering and extension of fused core and terminal group engineering[7–12].As well-known,PCE of devices is determined by the open circuit voltage(Voc),short-circuit current density(Jsc)and fill factor(FF)[13].Among them,Voc is associated with low-lying highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO)of donor and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital(LUMO)of acceptor of the active layer[14–16].Side-chain engineering is an effective strategy for manipulating energy levels and improving photovoltaic performance of devices[17–19].For example,introducing the alkyl/alkoxy chains can effectively tune the HOMO/LUMO energy levels[20–22].Tang et al.have reported a novel non-fullerene acceptor ITC6-IC.ITC6-IC has relatively high LUMO level and high Voc than those of ITIC due to the introduction of weak electrondonating hexyl group on thiophene[23].

Heteroatom substitution-induced asymmetric A–D–A type non-fullerene acceptor for efficient organic solar cells

Research on asymmetric A–D–A structured non-fullerene acceptors has lagged far behind the development of symmetric counterpart.In this contribution,by simply replacing one sulfur atom in indacenodithiophene unit with a selenium atom,an asymmetric building block Se PT and a corresponding asymmetric non-fullerene acceptor Se PT-IN have been developed.Asymmetric Se PT-IN achieved a high efficiency of 10.20% in organic solar cells when blended with PBT1-C,much higher than that of symmetric TPT-IN counterpart(8.91%).Our results demonstrated an effective heteroatom substitution strategy to develop asymmetric A–D–A structured non-fullerene acceptors.

Chlorinated polymer solar cells simultaneously enhanced by fullerene and non-fullerene ternary strategies

To achieve efficient polymer solar cells(PSCs)with full utilization of the whole spectrum,the multicomponent devices are of great importance to be deeply explored,especially for their capability of one-step fabrication.However,the research about one same binary system simultaneously derivated various multi-component PSC is still very limited.Herein,we achieved the whole constructions from one binary host to different ternary systems and even the quaternary one.The ternary strategies with fullerene acceptor,PC_(71)BM,and non-fullerene acceptor,BT_(6)IC-BO-4Cl,as the third component,both boosted the device efficiencies of PBT4Cl-Bz:IT-4F binary system from about 9% to comparatively beyond 11%.Despite the comparable improvement of performance,there existed other similarities and differences in two ternary strategies.In detail,the isotropic carrier transport of PC_(71)BM which largely elevated the fill factor(FF)in the corresponding devices,while the strong absorption of BT_(6)IC-BO-4Cl enhanced the short current density(J_(SC))most.More interestingly,quaternary devices based on PBT4Cl-Bz:IT-4F:PC71 BM:BT_(6)IC-BO-4Cl could combine both advantages of fullerene and non-fullerene ternary strategies,further pumped the J_(SC) from 16.44 to the highest level of 19.66 mA cm^(-2) among all devices,eventually resulted in an optimized efficiency of 11.69%.It reveals that both fullerene and non-fullerene ternary strategies have their unique feature to elevate the device performance either by efficient isotropic carrier transport or better coverage of whole sunlight spectrum and easy tunable energy levels from organic materials.The key is how to integrate the two pathways in one system and provide a more competitive solution facing high-quality PSCs.

Molecular design towards two-dimensional electron acceptors for efficient non-fullerene solar cells

Non-fullerene polymer solar cells(NF-PSCs) have gained wide attention recently. Molecular design of non-fullerene electron acceptors effectively promotes the photovoltaic performance of NF-PSCs. However,molecular electron acceptors with 2-dimensional(2 D) configuration and conjugation are seldom reported.Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of novel 2 D electron acceptors for efficient NF-PSCs. With rational optimization on the conjugated moieties in both vertical and horizontal direction, these 2 D electron acceptors showed appealing properties, such as good planarity, full-spectrum absorption, high absorption extinction coefficient, and proper blend morphology with donor polymer. A high PCE of 9.76%was achieved for photovoltaic devices with PBDB-T as the donor and these 2 D electron acceptors. It was also found the charge transfer between the conjugated moieties in two directions of these 2 D molecules contributes to the utilization of absorbed photos, resulting in an exceptional EQE of 87% at 730 nm. This work presents rational design guidelines of 2 D electron acceptors, which showed great promise to achieve high-performance non-fullerene polymer solar cells.

Non-fullerene small molecule electron acceptors for high-performance organic solar cells

Fullerenes and their derivatives are important types of electron acceptor materials and play a vital role in organic solar cell devices. However, the fullerene acceptor material has some difficulties to overcome the intrinsic shortcomings, such as weak absorption in the visible range, difficulty in modification and high cost, which limit the performance of the device and the large-scale application of this type of acceptors. In recent years, non-fullerene electron acceptor material has attracted the attention of scientists due to the advantages of adjustable energy level, wide absorption, simple synthesis, low processing cost and good solubility. Researchers can use the rich chemical means to design and synthesize organic small molecules and their oligomers with specific aggregation morphology and excellent optoelectronic prop- erties. Great advances in the field of synthesis, device engineering, and device physics of non-fullerene acceptors have been achieved in the last few years. At present, non-fullerene small molecules based photovoltaic devices achieve the highest efficiency more than 13% and the efficiency gap between fullerenetype and non-fullerene-type photovoltaic devices is gradually narrowing. In this review, we explore recent progress of non-fullerene small molecule electron acceptors that have been developed and led to highefficiency photovoltaic devices and put forward the prospect of development in the future.

N-alkyl chain modification in dithienobenzotriazole unit enabled efficient polymer donor for high-performance non-fullerene solar cells

Molecular design of either polymer donors or acceptors is a promising strategy to tune the morphology of the active layer of organic solar cells,enabling a high-performance device.Thereinto,developing novel polymer donors is an alternative method to obtain high photovoltaic performance.Herein,we present a facile side-chain engineering on the dithiophenobenzotriazole(DTBTz)unit of newly-designed polymer donors(named p BDT-DTBTz-EH and p BDT-DTBTz-Me)to boost the performance of non-fullerene solar cells.Compared with p BDT-DTBTz-EH with long N-alkyl side chains,p BDT-DTBTz-Me with a short methyl exhibits stronger molecular aggregation,higher absorption coefficient,and preferred face-on orientation packing.As a consequence,p BDT-DTBTz-Me based devices achieve an optimal power conversion efficiency of 15.31%when donors are paired with the narrow bandgap acceptor Y6,which is superior to that of p BDT-DTBTz-EH based devices(9.17%).Additionally,the p BDT-DTBTz-Me based devices manifest more effective charge separation and transfer than p BDT-DTBTz-EH based devices.These results indicate that fine-tuning side chains of polymer donors provide new insights for the design of high-performance polymer donors in non-fullerene solar cells.

Photophysics, morphology and device performances correlation on non-fullerene acceptor based binary and ternary solar cells

Non-fullerene acceptor(NFA) based organic solar cells(OSCs) are of high efficiency and low energy loss and low recombination features, which is owing to the advantage of non-fullerene acceptors. The photophysics investigation of non-fullerene solar cells, in comparing to fullerene based analogue as well as mixed acceptor ternary blends could help to understand the working mechanism of NFA functioning mechanism. We choose PBDB-T donor, the fullerene derivative PC71 BM acceptor, and the non-fullerene acceptor ITIC as the model system, to construct binary and ternary solar cells, which then subject to ultrafast spectroscopy investigation. The charge transfer pathway in binary and ternary blends is revealed.And it is seen that ITIC leads to a faster exciton separation and exciton diffusion. ITIC in blends suppresses the geminate recombination and shows smaller amount of charge transfer states, which is beneficial for the device performance. And the addition of ITIC enhances the crystallinity for both donor and acceptor leads to a morphology change of forming bicontinuous crystalline networks and phase separation. In a consequence, fill factor and JSC, increase dramatically for the related OSC.

Recent advances and prospects of asymmetric non-fullerene small molecule acceptors for polymer solar cells

Recently,polymer solar cells developed very fast due to the application of non-fullerence acceptors.Substituting asymmetric small molecules for symmetric small molecule acceptors in the photoactive layer is a strategy to improve the performance of polymer solar cells.The asymmetric design of the molecule is very beneficial for exciton dissociation and charge transport and will also fine-tune the molecular energy level to adjust the open-circuit voltage(Voc)further.The influence on the absorption range and absorption intensity will cause the short-circuit current density(Jsc)to change,resulting in higher device performance.The effect on molecular aggregation and molecular stacking of asymmetric structures can directly change the microscopic morphology,phase separation size,and the active layer's crystallinity.Very recently,thanks to the ingenious design of active layer materials and the optimization of devices,asymmetric non-fullerene polymer solar cells(A-NF-PSCs)have achieved remarkable development.In this review,we have summarized the latest developments in asymmetric small molecule acceptors(A-NF-SMAs)with the acceptor-donor-acceptor(A-D-A)and/or acceptor-donor-acceptor-donor-acceptor(A-D-A-D-A)structures,and the advantages of asymmetric small molecules are explored from the aspects of charge transport,molecular energy level and active layer accumulation morphology.

5H-Fluoreno [3,2-b:6,7-b’] Dithiophene Based Non-fullerene Small Molecular Acceptors for Polymer Solar Cell Application

Two novel non-fullerene small molecule acceptors were prepared with the conjugated backbone of 5 H-fluoreno[3, 2-b:6, 7-b’] dithiophene carrying the electron deficient unit of dicyanomethylene indanone(DICTFDT) and rhodanine(TFDTBR), respectively. The two acceptors exhibited excellent thermal stability and strong absorption in the visible region. The LUMO level is estimated to be at-3.89 eV for DICTFDT and-3.77 eV for TFDTBR. When utilized as the acceptor in bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells with the polymer donor of PBT7-Th, the optimized maximum power conversion efficiency of 5.12% and 3.95% was obtained for the device with DICTFDT and TFDTBR, respectively. The research demonstrates that 5 H-fluoreno[3, 2-b:6, 7-b’] dithiophene can be an appealing candidate for constructing small molecular electron acceptor towards efficient polymer:non-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells.

Utilizing 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene(EDOT)-bridged non-fullerene acceptors for efficient organic solar cells

A rational design of efficient low-band-gap non-fullerene acceptors(NFAs)for high-performance organic solar cells(OSCs)remains challenging;the main constraint being the decrease in the energy level of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals(LUMOs)as the bandgap of A-D-A-type NFAs decrease.Therefore,the short current density(J_(sc))and open-circuit voltage(V_(oc))result in a trade-off relationship,making it difficult to obtain efficient OSCs.Herein,three NFAs(IFL-ED-4 F,IDT-ED-4 F,and IDTT-ED-2 F)were synthesized to address the above-mentioned issue by introducing 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene(EDOT)as aπ-bridge.These NFAs exhibit relatively low bandgaps(1.67,1.42,and 1.49 eV,respectively)and upshifted LUMO levels(-3.88,-3.84,and-3.81 eV,respectively)compared with most reported low-band-gap NFAs.Consequently,the photovoltaic devices based on IDT-ED-4 F blended with a PBDB-T donor polymer showed the best power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 10.4%with a high J_(sc) of 22.1 mA cm^(-2) and Voc of 0.884 V among the examined NFAs.In contrast,IDTT-ED-4 F,which was designed with an asymmetric structure of the D-p-A type,showed the lowest efficiency of 1.5%owing to the poor morphology and charge transport properties of the binary blend.However,when this was introduced as the third component of the PM6:BTP-BO-4 Cl,complementary absorption and cascade energy-level alignment between the two substances could be achieved.Surprisingly,the IDTT-ED-4 F-based ternary blend device not only improved the Jscand Voc,but also achieved a PCE of 15.2%,which is approximately 5.3%higher than that of the reference device with a minimized energy loss of 0.488 eV.In addition,the universality of IDTT-ED-2 F as a third component was effectively demonstrated in other photoactive systems,specifically,PM6:BTPe C9 and PTB7-Th:IEICO-4 F.This work facilitates a better understanding of the structure–property relationship for utilizing efficient EDOT-bridged NFAs in high-performance OSC applications.

Small bandgap non-fullerene acceptor enables efficient PTB7-Th solar cell with near 0 eV HOMO offset

Three small bandgap non-fullerene(SBG NFAs) acceptors,BDTI,BDTI-2 F and BDTI-4 F,based on a carbon-oxygen bridged central core and thieno[3,4-b]thiophene linker,end-capped with varied electronwithdrawing terminal groups,were designed and synthesized.The acceptors exhibit strong absorption from 600 nm to 1000 nm.The optimal device incorporating designed NFA and PTB7-Th polymer donor achieves a power conversion efficiency of 9.11% with near 0 eV HOMO offset.The work presents a case study of efficient non-fullerene solar cells with small HOMO offsets,which is achieved by blending PTB7-Th with fine-tuned SBG acceptor.

Spatial configuration engineering of perylenediimide-based non-fullerene electron transport materials for efficient inverted perovskite solar cells

Due to their excellent photoelectron chemical properties and suitable energy level alignment with perovskite,perylene diimide(PDI)derivatives are competitive non-fullerene electron transport material(ETM)candidates for perovskite solar cells(PSCs).However,the conjugated rigid plane structure of PDI units result in PDI-based ETMs tending to form large aggregates,limiting their application and photovoltaic performance.In this study,to restrict aggregation and further enhance the photovoltaic performance of PDI-type ETMs,two PDI-based ETMs,termed PDO-PDI2(dimer)and PDO-PDI3(trimer),were constructed by introducing a phenothiazine 5,5-dioxide(PDO)core building block.The research manifests that the optoelectronic properties and film formation property of PDO-PDI2 and PDO-PDI3 were deeply affected by the molecular spatial configuration.Applied in PSCs,PDO-PDI3 with threedimensional spiral molecular structure,exhibits superior electron extraction and transport properties,further achieving the best PCE of 18.72%and maintaining 93%of its initial efficiency after a 720-h aging test under ambient conditions.

Heating induced aggregation in non-fullerene organic solar cells towards high performance

Molecular ordering within the photoactive layer plays a crucial role in determining the device performance of organic solar cells(OSCs).However,the simultaneous molecular ordering processes of polymer donors and non-fullerene acceptors(NFAs)during solution casting usually bring confinement effect,leading to insufficient structural order of photovoltaic components.Herein,the molecular packing of mINPOIC NFA is effectively formed through a heating induced aggregation strategy,with the aggregation of PBDB-T,which has a strong temperature dependence,is retarded by casting on a preheated substrate to reduce its interference toward m-INPOIC.A sequent thermal annealing treatment is then applied to promote the ordering of PBDB-T and achieve balanced aggregation of both donors and acceptors,resulting in the achievement of a maximum efficiency of 13.9% of PBDB-T:m-INPOIC binary OSCs.This work disentangles the interactions of donor polymer and NFA during the solution casting process and develops a rational strategy to enhance the molecular packing of NFAs to boost device performance.

Design and Synthesis of Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor Type Non-Fullerene Acceptors Using Oxindole-Based Bridge for Polymer Solar Cells Applications

Two acceptor-donor-acceptor(A-D-A)type non-fullerene acceptors(namely WH1 and WH7)containing the oxindole-based bridge are designed and synthesized for polymer solar cells(PSCs)applications.The bridge unit is introduced through a precursor(6-bromo-1-octylindoline-2,3-dione)that contains both bromine and carbonyl and provides the feasibility of the Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction and the Knoevenagel condensation,respectively.This facile synthetic approach exhibits the potential to gain high performance non-fullerene acceptors through extendingπ-conjugated backbone with strong light-absorbing building blocks.The synthesis and properties of WH1 and WH7 are demonstrated with different endcap units,then PSCs are fabricated using PBDB-T:WH1 and PBDB-T:WH7 as the active layers,and attain an average power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 2.58%and 6.24%,respectively.Further device physics studies afford the deep insight of structure variation influence on the device performance.This work provides a facile non-fullerene acceptor design strategy and shows how structure variations impact the PSC performance.

Polymer: Non-fullerene acceptor heterojunction-based phototransistor for short-wave infrared photodetection

It remains full of challenge for extending short-wave infrared(SWIR)spectral response and weak-light detection in the context of broad spectral responses for phototransistor.In this work,a novel poly(2,5-bis(4-hexyldodecyl)-2,5-dihydro-3,6-di-2-thienyl-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione-alt-thiophene)(PDPPT3-HDO):COTIC-4F organic bulk-heterojunction is prepared as active layer for bulk heterojunction phototransistors.PDPPT3-HDO serves as a hole transport material,while COTIC-4F enhances the absorption of SWIR light to 1020 nm.As a result,smooth and connected PDPPT3-HDO film is fabricated by blade coating method and exhibits high hole mobility up to 2.34 cm^(2)·V^(-1)·s^(-1) with a current on/off ratio of 4.72×10^(5) in organic thin film transistors.PDPPT3-HDO:COTIC-4F heterojunction phototransistors exhibit high responsivity of 2680 A·W^(-1) to 900 nm and 815 A·W^(-1) to 1020 nm,with fast response time(rise time~20 ms and fall time~100 ms).The photosensitivity of the heterojunction phototransistor improves as the mass ratio of non-fullerene acceptors increases,resulting in an approximately two orders of magnitude enhancement compared to the bare polymer phototransistor.Importantly,the phototransistor exhibits decent responsivity even under ultra-weak light power of 43μW·cm^(-2) to 1020 nm.This work represents a highly effective and general strategy for fabricating efficient and sensitive SWIR light photodetectors.

Recent progress in side chain engineering of Y-series non-fullerene molecule and polymer acceptors

Organic solar cells(OSCs) have drawn considerable attention in the last decade due to the great potential of light weight,flexibility, and low-cost solution processing. Particularly, Y-series non-fullerene acceptors(NFAs) including small molecular acceptors(SMAs) and polymerized small molecular acceptors(PSMAs) have become research hot spots due to their excellent power conversion efficiency. Side chain engineering is crucial to adjust the solubility and crystallinity of NFAs, which will significantly affect the morphology of active layers and the efficiency of OSCs. However, the understanding of side chain engineering on NFAs is still limited and lacks a systematic review. This review aims to provide a brief summary of the recent developments in side chain engineering of NFAs, with a special focus on the design and application of Y-series SMAs and PSMAs for high-efficiency non-fullerene organic solar cells(NF-OSCs). In addition, the review also points out challenges and provides useful guidance regarding side chain regulation for Y-series NFAs.

An Asymmetric Non-fullerene Acceptor with Low Energy Loss and High Photovoltaic Efficiency

Minimizing energy loss(E_(loss))plays a key role in improving the power conversion efficiencies(PCEs)of organic solar cells(OSCs).Here,to reveal the feasibility of the asymmetric molecular strategy in designing high-efficiency and low E_(loss)s OSC materials,we adopt the alkyl-alkoxy modification to design an asymmetric non-fullerene acceptor(NFA)named OC8-4F,where its symmetric alkyl-and alkoxy-substituted counterparties(2OC8-4F,eC9-4F)are also prepared.The results suggest that the introduction of a symmetric alkoxy at the edge of eC9-4F can effectively decrease the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit level without greatly changing the highest occupied molecular orbit level,leading to a mediated bandgap.In the devices,the OC8-4F possesses well-balanced charge generation and E_(loss),giving the highest PCE of 18%.Our results imply that finely tuning the asymmetric structure can be used as an effective molecular design strategy to improve the photovoltaic performance of OSCs.

Selective fluorination on donor and acceptor for management of efficiency and energy loss in non-fullerene organic photovoltaics

Although fluorination has been proved effective to modulate optoelectronic properties and film morphology,knowledge of managing power conversion efficiency(PCE)and energy loss(Eloss)of organic photovoltaics(OPVs)by selective fluorination on the donor and/or acceptor is lacking.Herein we designed and synthesized three 1,2,3-benzotriazole(BTA)-based linear polymers(PE45,PE46 and PE47)with different numbers of fluorine atom substitution on the conjugated phenyl side chain.Two classic non-fullerene acceptors(NFAs)Y5(without fluorination)and Y6(with fluorination)were utilized to manage the device efficiency and energy loss.The results revealed that increasing fluorine substitutions on polymer donor improved the OPV efficiencies when the fluorinated Y6 was used as the acceptor,whereas decreased the PCEs when the non-fluorinated Y5 was used as the acceptor.The energy loss declined with the growing fluorine substitutions on polymer donor,and Y5 systems gave the lower values in comparison with the corresponding Y6 cases.It turns out that PE47:Y6 achieved the highest PCE of 15.58%with an open-circuit voltage(VOC)of 0.84 V(Eloss=0.56 e V)due to the highest and balanced hole/electron mobilities,suppressed bimolecular recombination and fibril network morphology,which is the highest value in the BTA-based polymers.Furthermore,PE47:Y5 attained an ultralow non-radiative energy loss of 0.15 e V,which is one of the lowest values among the reported OPVs.Our work could not only give a direct path on how to manage the efficiency and energy loss by selective fluorination on donor and acceptor,but also show a deep understanding on charge generation,transport and collection induced by selective fluorination.