Nonfullerene acceptors from thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-fused naphthalene donor core with six-member-ring connection for efficient organic solar cells
Journal article, 2021

Comprehensive design ideas on the fused-ring donor-core in state-of-the-art acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) are still of great importance for regulating the electron push-pull effect for the sake of optimal light-harvesting, frontier molecular orbital levels, and finally their photovoltaic properties. Herein, thieno[3,2-b]thiophenes were fused in bay-area of naphthalene via six-member-ring connection, resulting in the formation of dihydropyrenobisthieno[3,2-b]thiophene based octacyclic ladder-type donor core, which was flanked by two 1,1-dicyanomethylene-3-indanone (IC) acceptor motifs with and without 5,6-diflourination, namely PTT-IC and PTT-2FIC, respectively, as novel efficient A-D-A fused-ring electron acceptors (FREAs). Compared with PTT-IC, fluorinated PTT-2FIC possesses narrower optical bandgap of 1.48 eV, better π-π stacking, and its PBDB-T:PTT-2FIC blend film exhibited better morphology, and better hole and electron mobility. As a result, nonfullerene solar cells using PBDB-T:PTT-2FIC as the active layer achieved a decent PCE of 10.40%, with an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.87 V, a fill factor (FF) of 0.65, and a much higher short-circuit current (JSC) of 18.26 mA/cm2. Meanwhile, the PBDB-T:PTT-IC cells delivered a lower JSC of 12.58 mA/cm2 but a higher VOC of 0.99 V, thus resulting in a PCE of 7.39% due to its wider optical bandgap of 1.58 eV and higher LUMO energy level. These results demonstrated that NFAs based on fused-ring donor core from fusing thieno[3,2-b]thiophenes with naphthalene via six-member-ring connection are promising for organic photovoltaic applications.

Power conversion efficiency

Organic solar cells

Six-member-ring

Naphthalene

Nonfullerene acceptors

Author

Siying Du

Hunan University of Science and Technology

Nannan Yao

Linköping University

Shungang Liu

Hunan University of Science and Technology

Yongzhuo Xu

Hunan University of Science and Technology

Jiamin Cao

Hunan University of Science and Technology

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Wenliu Zhuang

Guangdong Industry Polytechnic

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Junting Yu

Hunan University of Science and Technology

Nong Wang

Lanzhou Jiaotong University

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Donghong Yu

Changsha University of Science and Technology

Aalborg University

Fengling Zhang

Linköping University

Ergang Wang

Zhengzhou University

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Dyes and Pigments

0143-7208 (ISSN) 18733743 (eISSN)

Vol. 185 108892

Subject Categories

Materials Chemistry

Other Physics Topics

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1016/j.dyepig.2020.108892

More information

Latest update

2/26/2021