Extension of indacenodithiophene backbone conjugation enables efficient asymmetric A-D-A type non-fullerene acceptors

Jiali Song, Chao Li, Linglong Ye, Changwoo Koh, Yunhao Cai, Donghui Wei, Han Young Woo, Yanming Sun

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    86 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A novel strategy involving judiciously fusing one thiophene/thieno[3,2-b]thiophene on only one side of an indacenodithiophene (IDT) unit to extend IDT backbone conjugation was developed, and three A-D-A type non-fullerene small molecules (TPT-2F, TPTT-2F, and TPTTT-2F) were designed and synthesized to investigate the influence of the extent of IDT core conjugation on their photovoltaic properties. Extending the IDT core conjugation could broaden absorption, upshift the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level, enhance electron mobility, and increase intermolecular π-π stacking. When these three non-fullerene acceptors were applied in organic solar cells (OSCs), simultaneous enhancement of the open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current (Jsc), and fill factor (FF) was obtained, with the degree of enhancement following the order TPT-2F < TPTT-2F < TPTTT-2F. As a result, the TPTTT-2F based OSCs yielded a high PCE of 12.03%. To the best of our knowledge, the PCE of 12.03% is among the highest values for asymmetric non-fullerene acceptor based OSCs so far. These results demonstrate that extending the conjugation of the IDT core is an effective approach to design highly efficient asymmetric non-fullerene acceptors.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)18847-18852
    Number of pages6
    JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry A
    Volume6
    Issue number39
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2018

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work was nancially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 21734001, 51473009, and 21674007). H. Y. W. acknowledges nancial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2012M3A6A7055540 and 2015M1A2A2057506).

    Funding Information:
    This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 21734001, 51473009, and 21674007). H. Y. W. acknowledges financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2012M3A6A7055540 and 2015M1A2A2057506).

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Chemistry
    • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
    • General Materials Science

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