Issue 5, 2024

High-efficiency organic solar cells enabled by nonfullerene acceptors with varying alkyloxy substitution positions of the phenyl outer side chains

Abstract

Side-chain engineering has proven to be a highly effective approach in the manipulation of the molecular properties, morphology, and charge transfer/transport of non-fullerene acceptors. In addition to the alterations in branching locations and length of the alkyl side chain, a comprehensive exploration of the side chain configuration of nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) is imperative to fully exploit their capabilities in organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, two isomeric NFAs (named m-BTP-OEH and p-BTP-OEH) with phenyl outer side chains attaching a 2-ethylhexyloxy substituent at the meta- or para-position were designed and synthesized. The effects of the alkyloxy substitution position of the phenyl outer side chains on the molecular properties, blend morphology and charge process using the polymer donor PM6 are investigated. In comparison to p-BTP-OEH with para-substitution, the meta-substituted side chains of m-BTP-OEH exhibited more favorable tilted orientations and thus better film-morphology, charge transfer/transport and reduced energy disorder when blending with PM6. As a result, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the devices based on m-BTP-OEH reached 18.02%, exhibiting a significantly enhanced fill factor (FF) of 78.41%, surpassing the photovoltaic performance of the devices based on p-BTP-OEH (17.63%). This study contributes to the comprehension of the significant influence of side chain configuration on the properties of molecules and its role in advancing the performance of photovoltaic systems.

Graphical abstract: High-efficiency organic solar cells enabled by nonfullerene acceptors with varying alkyloxy substitution positions of the phenyl outer side chains

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Oct 2023
Accepted
11 Dec 2023
First published
16 Dec 2023

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024,12, 1675-1682

High-efficiency organic solar cells enabled by nonfullerene acceptors with varying alkyloxy substitution positions of the phenyl outer side chains

H. Feng, C. Jiang, Z. Li, X. Wan, B. Kan and Y. Chen, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024, 12, 1675 DOI: 10.1039/D3TC03864E

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