Citation: ZHANG Zhongqiang, ZHANG Shuhua, LIU Zhixi, ZHANG Zhiguo, LI Yongfang, LI Changzhi, CHEN Hongzheng. A Simple Electron Acceptor with Unfused Backbone for Polymer Solar Cells[J]. Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica, ;2019, 35(4): 394-400. doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201805091 shu

A Simple Electron Acceptor with Unfused Backbone for Polymer Solar Cells

1.
MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China
2.
Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China

Corresponding author: LI Changzhi, czli@zju.edu.cn CHEN Hongzheng, hzchen@zju.edu.cn
Received Date: 10 April 2018
Revised Date: 2 May 2018
Accepted Date: 3 May 2018
Available Online: 9 April 2018
Fund Project: the National Natural Science Foundation of China 51473142the National Natural Science Foundation of China 61721005The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21734008, 61721005, 21674093, 51473142) and the Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Plan, China (2018C01047)the National Natural Science Foundation of China 21734008the Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Plan, China 2018C01047the National Natural Science Foundation of China 21674093

Non-fullerene electron acceptors have attracted enormous attention of the research community owing to their advantages of optoelectronic and chemical tunabilities for promoting high-performance polymer solar cells (PSCs). Among them, fused-ring electron acceptors (FREAs) are the most popular ones with the good structural planarity and rigidity, which successfully boost the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of PSCs to over 14%. In considering the cost-control of future scale-up applications, it is also worthwhile to explore novel structures that are easy to synthesize and still maintain the advantages of FREAs. In this work, we design and synthesize a new electron acceptor with an unfused backbone, 5, 5'-((2, 5-bis((2-hexyldecyl)oxy)-1, 4-phenylene)bis(thiophene-2-yl))bis(methanylylidene)) bis(3-oxo-2, 3-dihydro-1H-indene-2, 1-diylidene))dimal-ononitrile (ICTP), which contains two thiophenes and one alkoxy benzene as the core and 2-(3-oxo-2, 3-dihydroinden-1-ylidene) malononitrile (IC) as the terminal groups. The synthetic route to ICTP involves only three steps, with high yields. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the non-covalent interactions, O…H and O…S, help reinforce the space conformation between the central core and the terminals. ICTP shows broad and strong absorption in the long-wavelength range between 500 and 760 nm. The highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital levels of ICTP were measured to be -5.56 and -3.84 eV by cyclic voltammetry. The suitable absorption and energy levels make ICTP a good acceptor candidate for medium bandgap polymer donors. The best devices based on PBDB-T:ICTP showed a PCE of 4.43%, with an open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 0.97 V, a short circuit current density (J_SC) of 8.29 mA∙cm^-2, and a fill factor (FF) of 0.55, after adding 1% 1, 8-diiodooctane (DIO) as the solvent additive. Atomic force microscopy revealed that DIO could ameliorate the strong aggregation in the blended film and lead to a smoother film surface. The hole and electron mobilities of the optimized device were measured to be 9.64 and 2.03 × 10^-5 cm²∙V^-1∙s^-1, respectively, by the space-charge-limited current method. The relatively low mobilities might be responsible for the moderate PCE. Further studies can be performed to enlarge the conjugation length by including more aromatic rings. This study provides a simple strategy to design non-fullerene acceptors and a valuable reference for the future development of PSCs.
- Polymer solar cell,
- Non-fullerene acceptor,
- Non-covalent interaction,
- Power conversion efficiency,
- Structure planarity
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