A simple fluorene core-based non-fullerene acceptor for high performance organic solar cells

Abstract

A small molecule non-fullerene acceptor based on a fluorene core having a furan π-spacer and end capped with rhodanine (FRd₂) is developed for solution processable bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (OSCs). The simplistic synthetic protocol reduces several reaction steps and hence production cost. Extended π-conjugation via furan units and the presence of electronegative rhodanine groups result in a power conversion efficiency of 9.4% in OSCs, which is the highest so far among these categories of molecules.