Two-dimensional molecular crystalline semiconductors towards advanced organic optoelectronics

The compelling demand for higher performance and lower cost in the optoelectronics industry has driven the development of organic semiconductors.Molecular crystalline semiconductors(MCSs),especially two-dimensional MCSs(2D-MCSs),possess intrinsic ordered structure,quantum confinement effect,high mobility,unique optical and electrical properties,and more ecological and cheaper production,which make great promises in high-performance optoelectronic applications.Here we provide a review of design principles and synthetic strategies for 2D-MCS materials,exploiting their potential as a revolution option in associated optoelectronic devices.The merits and limitations of each strategy are presented,and these molecular crystals are considered as a competitive choice for emerging semiconducting materials in information science.Finally,the current challenges and future perspectives in this field are also elaborated.

Understanding energetic disorder in electron-deficient-core-based non-fullerene solar cells

Recent advances in material design for organic solar cells(OSCs)are primarily focused on developing near-infrared nonfullerene acceptors,typically A-DA′D-A type acceptors(where A abbreviates an electron-withdrawing moiety and D,an electron-donor moiety),to achieve high external quantum efficiency while maintaining low voltage loss.However,the charge transport is still constrained by unfavorable molecular conformations,resulting in high energetic disorder and limiting the device performance.Here,a facile design strategy is reported by introducing the"wing"(alkyl chains)at the terminal of the DA′D central core of the A-DA′D-A type acceptor to achieve a favorable and ordered molecular orientation and therefore facilitate charge carrier transport.Benefitting from the reduced disorder,the electron mobilities could be significantly enhanced for the"wing"-containing molecules.By carefully changing the length of alkyl chains,the mobility of acceptor has been tuned to match with that of donor,leading to a minimized charge imbalance factor and a high fill factor(FF).We further provide useful design strategies for highly efficient OSCs with high FF.

A-π-A structured non-fullerene acceptors for stable organic solar cells with efficiency over 17%

With the development of photovoltaic materials, especially the small molecule acceptors(SMAs), organic solar cells(OSCs)have made breakthroughs in power conversion efficiencies(PCEs). However, the stability of high-performance OSCs remains a critical challenge for future technological applications. To tackle the inherent instability of SMA materials under the ambient conditions, much effort has been made to improve OSCs stability, including device modification and new materials design. Here we proposed a new electron acceptor design strategy and developed a “quasi-macromolecule”(QM) with an A-π-A structure,where the functionalized π-bridge is used as a linker between two SMAs(A), to improve the long-term stability without deteriorating device efficiencies. Such type of QMs enables excellent synthetic flexibility to modulate their optical/electrochemical properties, crystallization and aggregation behaviors by changing the A and π units. Moreover, QMs possess a unique long conjugated backbone combining high molecular weight over 3.5 k Da with high purity. Compared with the corresponding SMA BTP-4F-OD(Y6-OD), the devices based on newly synthesized A-π-A type acceptors QM1 and QM2 could exhibit better device stability and more promising PCEs of 17.05% and 16.36%, respectively. This kind of “molecular-framework”(A-π-A)structure provides a new design strategy for developing high-efficiency and-stability photovoltaic materials.