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Luo Z, Wei W, Ma R, Ran G, Jee MH, Chen Z, Li Y, Zhang W, Woo HY, Yang C. Approaching 20% Efficiency in Ortho-Xylene Processed Organic Solar Cells by a Benzo[a]phenazine-Core-Based 3D Network Acceptor with Large Electronic Coupling and Long Exciton Diffusion Length. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2024:e2407517. [PMID: 39139022 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202407517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2024] [Revised: 07/24/2024] [Indexed: 08/15/2024]
Abstract
High-performance organic solar cells often rely on halogen-containing solvents, which restrict the photovoltaic industry. Therefore, it is imperative to develop efficient organic photovoltaic materials compatible with halogen-free solvents. Herein, a series of benzo[a]phenazine (BP)-core-based small-molecule acceptors (SMAs) achieved through an isomerization chlorination strategy is presented, comprising unchlorinated NA1, 10-chlorine substituted NA2, 8-chlorine substituted NA3, and 7-chlorine substituted NA4. Theoretical simulations highlight NA3's superior orbit overlap length and tight molecular packing, attributed to interactions between the end group and BP unit. Furthermore, NA3 demonstrates dense 3D network structures and a record electronic coupling of 104.5 meV. These characteristics empower the ortho-xylene (o-XY) processed PM6:NA3 device with superior power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.94%, surpassing PM6:NA1 (15.34%), PM6:NA2 (7.18%), and PM6:NA4 (16.02%). Notably, the significantly lower PCE in the PM6:NA2 device is attributed to excessive self-aggregation characteristics of NA2 in o-XY. Importantly, the incorporation of D18-Cl into the PM6:NA3 binary blend enhances crystallographic ordering and increases the exciton diffusion length of the donor phase, resulting in a ternary device efficiency of 19.75% (certified as 19.39%). These findings underscore the significance of incorporating new electron-deficient units in the design of efficient SMAs tailored for environmentally benign solvent processing of OSCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenghui Luo
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials Service Safety, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of New Information Display and Storage Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
| | - Weifei Wei
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials Service Safety, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of New Information Display and Storage Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
| | - Ruijie Ma
- Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao (GHM) Joint Laboratory for Photonic-Thermal-Electrical Energy Materials and Devices, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, China
| | - Guangliu Ran
- Department of Physics and Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Min Hun Jee
- Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Korea University, Seoul, 136-713, Republic of Korea
| | - Zhanxiang Chen
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials Service Safety, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of New Information Display and Storage Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
| | - Yuxiang Li
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710054, China
| | - Wenkai Zhang
- Department of Physics and Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China
| | - Han Young Woo
- Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Korea University, Seoul, 136-713, Republic of Korea
| | - Chuluo Yang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials Service Safety, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of New Information Display and Storage Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
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Li Y, Mei L, Ge Z, Liu C, Song J, Man Y, Gao J, Zhang J, Tang Z, Chen XK, Sun Y. Conjugation-Broken Dimer Acceptors Enable High-Efficiency, Stable, and Flexibility-Robust Organic Solar Cells. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2024; 36:e2403890. [PMID: 39007481 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202403890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2024] [Revised: 06/25/2024] [Indexed: 07/16/2024]
Abstract
Dimer acceptors in organic solar cells (OSCs) offer distinct advantages, including a well-defined molecular structure and excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility. Their high glass transition temperature (Tg) aids in achieving an optimal kinetic morphology, thereby enhancing device stability. Currently, most of dimer acceptor materials are linked with conjugated units in order to obtain high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). In this study, different from previous works on conjugation-linked dimer acceptors, a novel series of dimer acceptors are synthesized (named T1, T4, T6, and T12), each linked with different flexible alkyl linkers, and investigated their PCEs, device stability, and flexibility robustness. When blended with PM6, the T6-based device achieves a PCE of 17.09%, comparable to the fully conjugated T0-based device's PCE of 17.12%. The molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations suggested that flexible conjugation-broken linkers (FCBLs) promote intermolecular electronic couplings, thereby maintaining good electron mobilities of dimer acceptors. Notably, the T6-based device exhibits impressive long-term stability with a T80 lifetime of 1427 h, while in the T0-based device, T80 is only 350 h. The present work has thus established the relationship between the length of flexible alkyl linkers in such dimer acceptors and the performance and stability of OSCs, which is important to further designing new materials for the fabrication of efficient and stable OSCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun Li
- Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou, 311115, P. R. China
- School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China
| | - Le Mei
- Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, P. R. China
- Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, P. R. China
| | - Zhongwei Ge
- School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China
| | - Chunhui Liu
- School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China
| | - Jiali Song
- Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou, 311115, P. R. China
- School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China
| | - Yuheng Man
- School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China
| | - Jiaxing Gao
- State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Center for Advanced Low-dimension Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, P. R. China
| | - Jianqi Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China
| | - Zheng Tang
- State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Center for Advanced Low-dimension Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, P. R. China
| | - Xian-Kai Chen
- Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, P. R. China
| | - Yanming Sun
- Hangzhou International Innovation Institute, Beihang University, Hangzhou, 311115, P. R. China
- School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China
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Chang B, Zhang Y, Zhang C, Zhang M, Wang Q, Xu Z, Chen Q, Bai Y, Fu H, Meng S, Xue L, Kim S, Yang C, Yi Y, Zhang ZG. Tethered Trimeric Small-molecular Acceptors through Aromatic-core Engineering for Highly Efficient and Thermally Stable Polymer Solar Cells. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2024; 63:e202400590. [PMID: 38318728 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202400590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2024] [Revised: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024]
Abstract
Polymer solar cells (PSCs) rely on a blend of small molecular acceptors (SMAs) with polymer donors, where thermodynamic relaxation of SMAs poses critical concerns on operational stability. To tackle this issue, tethered SMAs, wherein multiple SMA-subunits are connected to the aromatic-core via flexible chains, are proposed. This design aims to an elevated glass transition temperature (Tg) for a dynamical control. However, attaining an elevated Tg value with additional SMA subunits introduces complexity to the molecular packing, posing a significant challenge in realizing both high stability and power conversion efficiency (PCE). In this study, we initiate isomer engineering on the benzene-carboxylate core and find that meta-positioned dimeric BDY-β exhibits more favorable molecular packing compared to its para-positioned counterpart, BDY-α. With this encouraging result, we expand our approach by introducing an additional SMA unit onto the aromatic core of BDY-β, maintaining a meta-position relative to each SMA unit location in the tethered acceptor. This systematic aromatic-core engineering results in a star-shaped C3h-positioned molecular geometry. The supramolecular interactions of SMA units in the trimer contribute to enhancements in Tg value, crystallinity, and a red-shifted absorption compared to dimers. These characteristics result in a noteworthy increase in PCE to 18.24 %, coupled with a remarkable short-circuit current density of 27.06 mA cm-2. More significantly, the trimer-based devices delivered an excellent thermal stability with over 95 % of their initial efficiency after 1200 h thermal degradation. Our findings underscore the promise and feasibility of tethered trimeric structures in achieving highly ordered aggregation behavior and increased Tg value in PSCs, simultaneously improving in device efficiency and thermal stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bowen Chang
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Yaogang Zhang
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China
| | - Cen Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Ming Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Qingyuan Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Zheng'ao Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Qi Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Yang Bai
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Hongyuan Fu
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Shixin Meng
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
| | - Lingwei Xue
- Yaoshan Laboratory, Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan, Henan, 467000, P. R. China
| | - Seoyoung Kim
- Department of Energy Engineering, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Low Dimensional Carbon Materials Center, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 689-798, South Korea
| | - Changduk Yang
- Department of Energy Engineering, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Low Dimensional Carbon Materials Center, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 689-798, South Korea
| | - Yuanping Yi
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China
| | - Zhi-Guo Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China
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