Conjugation‐Curtailing of Benzodithionopyran‐Cored Molecular Acceptor Enables Efficient Air‐Processed Small Molecule Solar Cells

Abstract

Small molecule solar cells (SMSCs) lag a long way behind polymer solar cells. A key limit is the less controllable morphology of small molecule materials, which can be aggravated when incorporating anisotropic nonfullerene acceptors. To fine‐tune the blending morphology within SMSCs, a π‐conjunction curtailing design is applied, which produces a efficient benzodithionopyran‐cored molecular acceptor for nonfullerene SMSCs (NF‐SMSCs). When blended with a molecular donor BDT3TR‐SF to fabricate NF‐SMSCs, the π‐conjunction curtailed molecular acceptor NBDTP‐M obtains an optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 10.23%, which is much higher than that of NBDTTP‐M of longer π‐conjunction. It retains 93% of the PCE of devices fabricated in a glove box when all spin‐coating and post‐treating procedures are conducted in ambient air with relative humidity of 25%, which suggests the good air‐processing capability of π‐conjunction curtailed molecules. Detailed X‐ray scattering investigations indicate that the BDT3TR‐SF:NBDTP‐M blend exhibits a blend morphology featuring fine interpenetrating networks with smaller domains and higher phase purity, which results in more efficient charge generation, more balanced charge transport, and less recombination compared to the low‐performance BDT3TR‐SF:NBDTTP‐M blend. This work provides a guideline for molecular acceptors' design toward efficient, low‐cost, air‐processed NF‐SMSCs.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Sep 12, 2019
Source ID
10.1002/smll.201902656

Entities

People

  • Changduk Yang
  • Haijun Fan
  • Hao Wu
  • Harald Ade
  • Long Ye
  • Shanshan Chen
  • Wuyue Liu
  • Xiaozhang Zhu

Organizations

  • Chongqing University
  • Institute of Chemistry
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China
  • North Carolina State University
  • Office of Naval Research
  • Program 973
  • Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology
  • United States Department of Energy
  • University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.
  • Systems Analysis and Design