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Altering alkyl-chains branching positions for boosting the performance of small-molecule acceptors for highly efficient nonfullerene organic solar cells

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Abstract

The emergence of the latest generation of small-molecule acceptor (SMA) materials, with Y6 as a typical example, accounts for the surge in device performance for organic solar cells (OSCs). This study proposes two new acceptors named Y6-C2 and Y6-C3, from judicious alteration of alkyl-chains branching positions away from the Y6 backbone. Compared to the Y6, the Y6-C2 exhibits similar optical and electrochemical properties, but better molecular packing and enhanced crystallinity. In contrast, the Y6-C3 shows a significant blue-shift absorption in the solid state relative to the Y6 and Y6-C2. The as-cast PM6:Y6-C2-based OSC yields a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.89% than those based on the Y6 (15.24%) and Y6-C3 (13.76%), representing the highest known value for as-cast nonfullerene OSCs. Prominently, the Y6-C2 displays a good compatibility with the PC71BM. Therefore, a ternary OSC device based on PM6:Y6-C2:PC71BM (1.0:1.0:0.2) was produced, and it exhibits an outstanding PCE of 17.06% and an impressive fill factor (FF) of 0.772. Our results improve understanding of the structure-property relationship for state-of-the-art SMAs and demonstrate that modulating the structure of SMAs via fine-tuning of alkyl-chains branching positions is an effective method to enhance their performance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21572171, 21702154, 51773157, 51873160), the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB834805), Shenzhen Peacock Plan (KQTD2017033011-0107046), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS201905). We thank the Australian Synchrotron, part of ANSTO for partial work on the SAXS/WAXS beamline and the Supercomputing Center of Wuhan University for numerical work conducted using the supercomputing system.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Zhenghui Luo, Tao Liu, Yang Zou & Chuluo Yang

  2. Hubei Key Lab on Organic and Polymeric Optoelectronic Materials, Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Zhenghui Luo, Cheng Zhong & Chuluo Yang

  3. The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Rui Sun & Jie Min

  4. eFlexPV Limited (China), Shenzhen, China

    Guangye Zhang

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Xuechen Jiao

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  1. Zhenghui Luo
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  2. Rui Sun
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  3. Cheng Zhong
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  4. Tao Liu
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Correspondence to Xuechen Jiao, Jie Min or Chuluo Yang.

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11426_2019_9670_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Manipulating Alkyl-Chain Branching Position to Boost the Performance of Small-Molecule Acceptors for Highly Efficient Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

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Luo, Z., Sun, R., Zhong, C. et al. Altering alkyl-chains branching positions for boosting the performance of small-molecule acceptors for highly efficient nonfullerene organic solar cells. Sci. China Chem. 63, 361–369 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-019-9670-2

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