Theoretical Study of a Class of Organic D-π-A Dyes for Polymer Solar Cells: Influence of Various π-Spacers

Designing and Theoretical Study of Dibenzocarbazole Derivatives Based Hole Transport Materials: Application for Perovskite Solar Cells

Hole-transporting materials (HTMs) are essentials in producing the efficient and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this article, we provided the investigation results of electronic structures and photophysical characteristics of eight designed derivatives (HTM1a-HTM4a and HTM1b-HTM4b) of a dibenzocarbazole-based compound HTMR. HTMR was modified by substituting the terminal groups located on the diphenylamine moieties with two and four electron donor groups (ED1-ED4) of different character. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) have been used to optimize the geometry of the ground state and for excited state calculations, respectively. The nature and number of electron donor substitutions on the frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs), ionization potential (IP), electronic affinity (AE), maximum absorption wavelengths ([Formula: see text], solubility ([Formula: see text], stability (η), exciton binding energy ([Formula: see text], reorganization energies ([Formula: see text] and charge mobility (k) are examined and discussed in detail. On this basis, the features such as proper HOMO levels (-5.464 and -4.745 eV), comparable hole mobilities ([Formula: see text] (4.632 × 10¹³ and 1.177 × 10¹⁴ s^-1), a significant [Formula: see text] (367.13 and 398.27 nm), and high η (1.440 and 1.667 eV) have made these structures suitable hole transport materials (HTMs) to provide perovskite solar cells with a high efficiency.

From Kohn-Sham to Many-Electron Energies via Step Structures in the Exchange-Correlation Potential

Accurately describing excited states within Kohn–Sham (KS) density functional theory (DFT), particularly those which induce ionization and charge transfer, remains a great challenge. Common exchange-correlation (xc) approximations are unreliable for excited states owing, in part, to the absence of a derivative discontinuity in the xc energy (Δ), which relates a many-electron energy difference to the corresponding KS energy difference. We demonstrate, analytically and numerically, how the relationship between KS and many-electron energies leads to the step structures observed in the exact xc potential in four scenarios: electron addition, molecular dissociation, excitation of a finite system, and charge transfer. We further show that steps in the potential can be obtained also with common xc approximations, as simple as the LDA, when addressed from the ensemble perspective. The article therefore highlights how capturing the relationship between KS and many-electron energies with advanced xc approximations is crucial for accurately calculating excitations, as well as the ground-state density and energy of systems which consist of distinct subsystems.