High-Performance All-Small-Molecule Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Regio-Isomerization of Noncovalently Conformational LocksShow others and affiliations
2022 (English)In: Advanced Functional Materials, ISSN 1616-301X, E-ISSN 1616-3028, Vol. 32, no 19, article id 2112433Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of organic solar cells (OSCs) have surpassed 19% thanks to the innovation of polymer donors and molecular acceptors. However, the batch-to-batch variations in polymer materials are detrimental to the reproducibility of the device performance. In comparison, small-molecule donors (SMDs) possess some unique advantages, such as well-defined molecular weights, easy purification, and excellent batch-to-batch repeatability. Herein, a pair of regioisomeric SMDs (BT-O1 and BT-O2) has been synthesized with alkoxy groups as S center dot center dot center dot O noncovalently conformational locks (NoCLs) at the inner and outer position, respectively. Theoretical and experimental results reveal that the regioisomeric effect has a significant influence on the light-harvest ability, energy levels, molecular geometries, internal reorganization energy, and packing behaviors for the two SMDs. As a result, BT-O2-based binary device shows an impressive PCE of 13.99%, much higher than that of BT-O1 based one (4.07%), due to the better-aligned energy level, more balanced charge transport, less charge recombination, lower energy loss, and more favorable phase separation. Furthermore, the fullerene derivative PC71BM is introduced into BT-O2:H3 as the third component to achieve a notable PCE of 15.34% (certified 14.6%). Overall, this work reveals that NoCLs is a promising strategy to achieve high-performance SMDs for all-small-molecule OSCs.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH , 2022. Vol. 32, no 19, article id 2112433
Keywords [en]
all-small-molecule organic solar cells; noncovalently conformational locks; regio-isomerization; small-molecule donors
National Category
Physical Chemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-182912DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202112433ISI: 000750945100001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-182912DiVA, id: diva2:1638288
Note
Funding Agencies|NSFCNational Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [21774130, 51925306]; National Key R&D Program of China [2018FYA 0305800]; Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of SciencesChinese Academy of Sciences [XDPB08-2]; Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of SciencesChinese Academy of Sciences [XDB28000000]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central UniversitiesFundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
2022-02-162022-02-162023-04-20Bibliographically approved