The use of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) in organic solar cells has led to power conversion efficiencies as high as 18%(1). However, organic solar cells are still less efficient than inorganic solar cells, which typically have power conversion efficiencies of more than 20%(2). A key reason for this difference is that organic solar cells have low open-circuit voltages relative to their optical bandgaps(3), owing to non-radiative recombination(4). For organic solar cells to compete with inorganic solar cells in terms of efficiency, non-radiative loss pathways must be identified and suppressed. Here we show that in most organic solar cells that use NFAs, the majority of charge recombination under open-circuit conditions proceeds via the formation of non-emissive NFA triplet excitons; in the benchmark PM6:Y6 blend(5), this fraction reaches 90%, reducing the open-circuit voltage by 60 mV. We prevent recombination via this non-radiative channel by engineering substantial hybridization between the NFA triplet excitons and the spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons. Modelling suggests that the rate of back charge transfer from spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons to molecular triplet excitons may be reduced by an order of magnitude, enabling re-dissociation of the spin-triplet charge-transfer exciton. We demonstrate NFA systems in which the formation of triplet excitons is suppressed. This work thus provides a design pathway for organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies of 20% or more. A substantial pathway for energy loss in organic solar cells may be suppressed by engineering hybridization between non-fullerene acceptor triplet excitons and spin-triplet charge transfer excitons.

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices based on semiconducting polymers and small molecules are potential alternatives to inorganic solar cells, owing to their advantages of being inexpensive, lightweight, flexible and suitable for roll-to-roll production. The state of art organic solar cells (OSCs) performed power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 13%.

The quantum efficiency losses in OSCs have been significantly reduced within the charge generation and extraction processes, resulting in high EQE_PV (70-90%) and high FF (70-80%). Whereas, large voltage losses (Δ𝑉 = 𝐸_𝑔/_𝑞 − 𝑉_𝑂𝐶) were observed in conventional fullerene based solar cells, and it has been the main limiting factor for further OPV advancement. Therefore, strategies to reduce the voltage losses are required.

In this thesis, newly designed non-fullerene (NF) acceptors are used to construct novel material systems for high efficiency solar cells. In particular, we studied the hole transfer in these fullerene free systems. We also reported a NF system that exhibit ultrafast and efficient charge separation despite a negligible driving force, as E_CT is nearly identical to 𝐸_𝑔. Moreover, the small driving force is found to have minimal detrimental effects on charge transfer dynamics of the OSCs. We demonstrate a NF based OSC with efficiency of 9.5% and internal quantum efficiency nearly 90% despite a low voltage loss of 0.61 V. This creates a path towards highly efficient OSCs with a low voltage loss.

CT states in OSCs are also investigated, since VOC is governed by the CT energy (E_CT), which is found as 𝑞𝑉_𝑂𝐶 = 𝐸_𝐶𝑇 − 0.6 in a large set of fullerene based solar cells. In order to reduce these recombination losses from CT states, we explored polymer-diPDI systems which exhibited weakened D-A coupling strength, due to the steric hindrance effect. The radiative recombination losses at D/A interface in these NF devices are all reduced to less than 0.18 eV. In particular, in some cases, the additional emission from pure material is favorable for suppressing the non-radiative CT states decay. Consequently, the recombination losses in these NF systems are reduced to 0.5 eV, while the charge generation is still efficient as confirmed by PL quenching and EQE_PV.

Novel material systems based on non-fullerene acceptors are investigated. The systems performed energy offsets (ΔHOMO or ΔLUMO) less than 0.15eV, resulting in the same energy of CT states and bulk excitons. In this regard, the charge transfer energy loss is minimized. We also found that the EL spectra as well as the EQE_EL of the blend solar cells are similar with that of lower gap components in blends. Thus the non-radiative voltage losses are reduced to < 0.3V and small voltage loss of 0.5-0.7V are obtained. Meanwhile, the charge generation in systems are still efficient and high EQE_PV of 50-70% can be achieved. It confirms that there is no intrinsic limit for the V_OC and efficiency of OPVs as compared with other photovoltaic technologies.