Fine-Tuning of Molecular Packing and Energy Level through Methyl Substitution Enabling Excellent Small Molecule Acceptors for Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with Efficiency up to 12.54.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29334160.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1002/adma.201706124.
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Abstract
A novel small molecule acceptor MeIC with a methylated end-capping group is developed. Compared to unmethylated counterparts (ITCPTC), MeIC exhibits a higher lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level value, tighter molecular packing, better crystallites quality, and stronger absorption in the range of 520-740 nm. The MeIC-based polymer solar cells (PSCs) with J71 as donor, achieve high power conversion efficiency (PCE), up to 12.54% with a short-circuit current (J<sub>SC</sub> ) of 18.41 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> , significantly higher than that of the device based on J71:ITCPTC (11.63% with a J<sub>SC</sub> of 17.52 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> ). The higher J<sub>SC</sub> of the PSC based on J71:MeIC can be attributed to more balanced μ<sub>h</sub> /μ<sub>e</sub> , higher charge dissociation and charge collection efficiency, better molecular packing, and more proper phase separation features as indicated by grazing incident X-ray diffraction and resonant soft X-ray scattering results. It is worth mentioning that the as-cast PSCs based on MeIC also yield a high PCE of 11.26%, which is among the highest value for the as-cast nonfullerene PSCs so far. Such a small modification that leads to so significant an improvement of the photovoltaic performance is a quite exciting finding, shining a light on the molecular design of the nonfullerene acceptors.