Heteroatom conjugated-shoulder side-chains-based non-fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells

• Published in: Cell reports physical science Vol. 4; no. 3; p. 101303
• Main Authors: Xue, Lingwei, Yan, Chaoyi, Yao, Jia, Zhang, Meifang, Li, Qingbin, Chen, Qi, Zhang, Ze, Wang, Haiqiao, Liu, Zitong, Yao, Guo, Zhang, Chunfeng, Liu, Jiangang, Zhang, Zhi-Guo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 15.03.2023
• Subjects: heteroatom effect; non-fullerene acceptors; organic solar cells; side-chain engineering; organic solar cells; heteroatom effect; side-chain engineering; non-fullerene acceptors
• ISSN: 2666-3864; 2666-3864
• DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101303

In the field of organic solar cells (OSCs), shoulder side-chain engineering on Y-series non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) has been the subject of great interest toward realizing high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Here, we report a procedure for post-attaching shoulder side chains on Y-series NFAs. Compared with the traditional procedure of pre-attaching side chains, this method has the advantages of using low-cost raw materials and of being more convenient for robustly attaching conjugated side chains. As a proof of concept, this method is successfully extended to the synthesis of oxygen (CY-O) and sulfur (CY-S) substituted alkylphenyl side chains. Interestingly, CY-O exhibits a higher crystallinity and suitable morphology and a better trade-off between charge separation rate and triplet generation processes. As a result, CY-O-based OSCs achieve a high PCE of 17.8% relative to that of CY-S (15.7%). Our results demonstrate that post-side-chain engineering is a convenient and low-cost method to construct high-performance NFAs. [Display omitted] •A procedure of post-attaching conjugated side chains is reported•Y-series acceptors with heteroatom-substituted alkylphenyl side chains are reported•Oxygen-substituted CY-O exhibits a higher crystallinity and suitable morphology•CY-O shows a better trade-off between charge separation and triplet generation In this work, Xue et al. report a procedure for post-attaching conjugated-shoulder side chains to design Y-series non-fullerene acceptors. This method has the advantage of using low-cost raw materials, and thus is more convenient for robust attachment of conjugated side chains.