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Synergistic high efficiency and low energy loss of all-small-molecule organic solar cells based on benzotriazole-based π-bridge unit

基于苯并三氮唑π-桥单元协同高效率和低能量损失的全小分子有机太阳电池

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Abstract

Reducing energy loss (Vloss) is one of the most crucial challenges in organic photovoltaic cells. The Vloss, determined by the differences between the optical band gap (Eg) of the active layer material and the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of the device, is generally alleviated by lowering the energy difference between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of the donor (D) and acceptor (A). In this work, we synthesized two A-π-D-π-A-type small-molecule donors (SMDs) SM-benzotriazole (BTz)-1 and SM-BTz-2 by introducing a BTz π-bridge unit and terminal regulation. The BTz π-bridge unit significantly lowers the HOMO energy level of SMDs, resulting in high Voc and high mobility, achieving a balance of low energy loss (<0.5 eV) and high efficiency. Ultimately, the organic solar cells based on SM-BTz-2 as the donor and Y6 as the acceptor obtain a high Voc of 0.91 V, Jsc of 22.8 mA cm−2, fill factor of 68%, and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.12%, which is one of the highest efficiencies based on the SMDs with triazole π-bridges to date. What’s more, the BTz π-bridge unit is a potential unit that can improve mobility and reduce energy loss.

摘要

降低电压损失(Vloss)是有机光伏电池未来商业化应用面临的关键挑战之一. Vloss一般由活性层材料的光学带隙和器件的开路电压(Voc)之差定义, 而Voc则由给受体之间的最低未占据分子轨(LUMO)和最高占据分子轨道(HOMO)之间的能级差决定. 本文通过引入苯并三唑(BTz)π-桥单元, 利用末端调控策略合成了两种A-π-D-π-A型小分子给体SM-BTz-1和SM-BTz-2. 结果显示, BTz π-桥单位显著降低了小分子给体的HOMO能级, 使其具有较高的Voc和载流子迁移率, 实现了高效率与低能量损失(小于0.5 eV)之间的平衡. 最终, 以SM-BTz-2为给体, Y6为受体的全小分子有机太阳能电池Voc为0.91 V, 短路电流密度(Jsc) 为22.8 mA cm−2, 填充因子为68%, 能量转化效率为14.12%. 此外, 该工作也进一步说明了苯并三唑π-桥单元是提高载流子迁移率, 降低能量损失的有效构建单元.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFA0705900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51820105003, 21734008, 61904181, 52173188 and 52103243), the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDPB13), and the Basic and Applied Basic Research Major Program of Guangdong Province (2019B030302007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jing Guo  (郭静), Ke Hu  (胡克), Dengchen Yang  (杨登宸), Xiaojun Li  (李骁骏), Lei Meng  (孟磊), Zhanjun Zhang  (张占军) & Yongfang Li  (李永舫)

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jing Guo  (郭静), Ke Hu  (胡克), Dengchen Yang  (杨登宸), Xiaojun Li  (李骁骏), Jinyuan Zhang  (章津源), Lei Meng  (孟磊) & Yongfang Li  (李永舫)

  3. Key Laboratory of Solid State Optoelectronic Devices of Zhejiang Province, College of Physics and Electronic Information Engineering, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China

    Beibei Qiu  (邱贝贝)

  4. Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Novel Semiconductor-optoelectronics Materials and Devices, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Yongfang Li  (李永舫)

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  1. Jing Guo  (郭静)
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Contributions

Guo J synthesized the molecule donor materials; Guo J and Hu K performed the device fabrication and characterization of the SM-OSCs; Qiu B conducted the experiment guidance; Zhang J and Yang D were responsible for the transient absorption spectroscopy test and DFT analysis respectively; Li X, Meng L, Zhang Z and Li Y were responsible for conceptualizing the experiment, designing the experiment, and supervising the whole project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Beibei Qiu  (邱贝贝), Jinyuan Zhang  (章津源), Lei Meng  (孟磊) or Zhanjun Zhang  (张占军).

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary information

Experimental data and supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Jing Guo received her BSc degree from Yanbian University in 2017. Now she is a jointly trained PhD candidate at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and the Institute of Chemistry, CAS (ICCAS) under the guidance of Prof. Yongfang Li. Her current research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of organic photovoltaic materials.

Beibei Qiu is currently a lecturer at Zhejiang Normal University. He received his BSc and MSc degrees from the Central South University in 2013 and 2016, respectively, and his PhD degree in 2020 from ICCAS, under the supervision of Prof. Yongfang Li. His research interests are in the fields of organic photovoltaic materials and devices.

Jinyuan Zhang received his PhD degree from the North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 2016, then he did his postdoctoral research at the Northwestern University (NU). He joined Prof. Yongfang Li’s group at ICCAS as a postdoctoral fellow in 2019. His research focuses on investigating the working mechanism of organic solar cells via ultrafast spectroscopy.

Zhanjun Zhang received his PhD degree from Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry, CAS in 1999. Then he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Shengmin Cai’s group at Peking University. He became a professor of the UCAS in 2001. His research focuses on the design, synthesis and application of organic solar cell photovoltaic materials and lithium ion battery materials.

Lei Meng received his BSc degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2011, MSc degree from NU in 2012 and PhD degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2017. After graduation, he continued his postdoctoral research at UCLA. In 2018, he joined the ICCAS as a professor in the Key Laboratory of Organic Solids. His current research interest mainly focuses on organic semiconductor materials, organic solar cells and perovskite solar cells.

Yongfang Li is a professor at the ICCAS, and Soochow University. He received his PhD degree in 1986 from the Department of Chemistry, Fudan University. He joined ICCAS in 1988 and was promoted to be a professor in 1993. He was invited to be a professor at Soochow University in 2012, and was elected as a member of the CAS in 2013. His present research field is photovoltaic materials and devices for polymer solar cells.

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Synergistic high efficiency and low energy loss of all-small-molecule organic solar cells based on benzotriazole-based π-bridge unit

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Guo, J., Hu, K., Qiu, B. et al. Synergistic high efficiency and low energy loss of all-small-molecule organic solar cells based on benzotriazole-based π-bridge unit. Sci. China Mater. 65, 3382–3391 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-022-2172-6

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