Issue 47, 2021

A liquid-crystalline non-fullerene acceptor enabling high-performance organic solar cells

Abstract

The use of liquid crystalline (LC) compounds in organic photovoltaics has revealed to be an effective strategy to optimise the bulk heterojunction morphology, repairing structural defects through their self-assembling properties. Nonetheless, the design of LC materials has mostly been limited to donor molecules in previous reports. Here we introduce a Non-Fullerene Acceptor (NFA), 4TICO, characterised by an improved structural flexibility, which is imparted by the alkoxy sidechain and favours the formation of LC phases at high temperature. This structural polymorphism also occurs in films where the 4TICO is blended with the PBTZT-stat-BDTT-8 polymer. The high-temperature LC polymorph leads to the formation of a smooth surface morphology with fewer structural defects, providing solar cells with an improved short-circuit current (Jsc) and fill factor (FF), by 14% and 20% respectively. An in-depth investigation of the NFA structural properties in relation to the solar cell performance and charge transport is carried out in comparison to the 4TIC crystalline isomer.

Graphical abstract: A liquid-crystalline non-fullerene acceptor enabling high-performance organic solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Sep 2021
Accepted
03 Nov 2021
First published
05 Nov 2021

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021,9, 26917-26928

A liquid-crystalline non-fullerene acceptor enabling high-performance organic solar cells

P. Mondelli, F. Silvestri, L. Ciammaruchi, E. Solano, E. Beltrán-Gracia, E. Barrena, M. Riede and G. Morse, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021, 9, 26917 DOI: 10.1039/D1TA07822D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements