skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: High‐Efficiency All‐Small‐Molecule Organic Solar Cells Based on an Organic Molecule Donor with Alkylsilyl‐Thienyl Conjugated Side Chains

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [4];  [3]; ORCiD logo [7]
  1. CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 China, School of Chemical Science University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China
  2. CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 China, Department of Chemistry School of Science Beijing JiaoTong University Beijing 100044 China
  3. Department of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL) North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
  4. CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 China
  5. Advanced Light Source Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 USA
  6. Department of Chemistry School of Science Beijing JiaoTong University Beijing 100044 China
  7. CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 China, School of Chemical Science University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100049 China, Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials College of Chemistry Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Soochow University Suzhou Jiangsu 215123 China

Abstract Two medium‐bandgap p‐type organic small molecules H21 and H22 with an alkylsily‐thienyl conjugated side chain on benzo[1,2‐ b :4,5‐ b ′]dithiophene central units are synthesized and used as donors in all‐small‐molecule organic solar cells (SM‐OSCs) with a narrow‐bandgap n‐type small molecule 2,2′‐((2Z,2′Z)‐((4,4,9,9‐tetrahexyl‐4,9‐dihydro‐ s ‐indaceno[1,2‐ b :5,6‐ b ′]dithiophene‐2,7‐diyl)bis(methanylylidene))bis(3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐indene‐2,1‐diylidene))dimalononitrile (IDIC) as the acceptor. In comparison to H21 with 3‐ethyl rhodanine as the terminal group, H22 with cyanoacetic acid esters as the terminal group shows blueshifted absorption, higher charge‐carrier mobility and better 3D charge pathway in blend films. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the SM‐OSCs based on H22:IDIC reaches 10.29% with a higher open‐circuit voltage of 0.942 V and a higher fill factor of 71.15%. The PCE of 10.29% is among the top efficiencies of nonfullerene SM‐OSCs reported in the literature to date.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
DE‐AC02‐05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1438077
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Vol. 30 Journal Issue: 27; ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 137 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (64)

A High-Performing Solution-Processed Small Molecule:Perylene Diimide Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cell journal June 2013
High-Performance Electron Acceptor with Thienyl Side Chains for Organic Photovoltaics journal March 2016
Molecular Design of Photovoltaic Materials for Polymer Solar Cells: Toward Suitable Electronic Energy Levels and Broad Absorption journal January 2012
Single-Junction Binary-Blend Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with 12.1% Efficiency journal March 2017
Fullerene derivative acceptors for high performance polymer solar cells journal January 2011
A High-Mobility Electron-Transport Polymer with Broad Absorption and Its Use in Field-Effect Transistors and All-Polymer Solar Cells journal June 2007
Organic photovoltaics: technology and market journal June 2004
A Rhodanine Flanked Nonfullerene Acceptor for Solution-Processed Organic Photovoltaics journal January 2015
Designing Efficient Non-Fullerene Acceptors by Tailoring Extended Fused-Rings with Electron-Deficient Groups journal September 2015
High-efficiency and air-stable P3HT-based polymer solar cells with a new non-fullerene acceptor journal June 2016
Efficient fullerene-free organic solar cells based on fused-ring oligomer molecules journal January 2016
Molecular Design toward Highly Efficient Photovoltaic Polymers Based on Two-Dimensional Conjugated Benzodithiophene journal April 2014
Solution-Processable Organic Molecule Photovoltaic Materials with Bithienyl-benzodithiophene Central Unit and Indenedione End Groups journal May 2013
Effect of Alkylsilyl Side-Chain Structure on Photovoltaic Properties of Conjugated Polymer Donors journal December 2017
A SAXS/WAXS/GISAXS Beamline with Multilayer Monochromator journal October 2010
All-Polymer Solar Cells from Perylene Diimide Based Copolymers: Material Design and Phase Separation Control journal February 2011
Side-Chain Isomerization on an n-type Organic Semiconductor ITIC Acceptor Makes 11.77% High Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells journal November 2016
Design and Synthesis of a Low Bandgap Small Molecule Acceptor for Efficient Polymer Solar Cells journal July 2016
Solution Processable Rhodanine-Based Small Molecule Organic Photovoltaic Cells with a Power Conversion Efficiency of 6.1% journal November 2011
Highly efficient and thermally stable fullerene-free organic solar cells based on a small molecule donor and acceptor journal January 2016
An Electron Acceptor Challenging Fullerenes for Efficient Polymer Solar Cells journal January 2015
All-Small-Molecule Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with High Fill Factor and High Efficiency over 10% journal August 2017
All-small-molecule organic solar cells based on an electron donor incorporating binary electron-deficient units journal January 2016
Efficient organic solar cells processed from hydrocarbon solvents journal January 2016
Small Molecules Based on Benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene Unit for High-Performance Solution-Processed Organic Solar Cells journal September 2012
Energy-Level Modulation of Small-Molecule Electron Acceptors to Achieve over 12% Efficiency in Polymer Solar Cells journal September 2016
Solution-processed organic tandem solar cells with power conversion efficiencies >12% journal December 2016
A Thieno[3,4- b ]thiophene-Based Non-fullerene Electron Acceptor for High-Performance Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells journal November 2016
Non-fullerene acceptors for organic photovoltaics: an emerging horizon journal January 2014
Efficient Solution-Processed Small-Molecule Solar Cells with Inverted Structure journal March 2013
Fluorination-enabled optimal morphology leads to over 11% efficiency for inverted small-molecule organic solar cells journal December 2016
High-Performance Organic Solar Cells Based on a Small Molecule with Alkylthio-Thienyl-Conjugated Side Chains without Extra Treatments journal October 2015
Indene−C60 Bisadduct: A New Acceptor for High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells journal February 2010
Efficient Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by a Novel Wide Bandgap Small Molecular Acceptor journal March 2017
High-performance fullerene-free polymer solar cells with 6.31% efficiency journal January 2015
Understanding Energy Loss in Organic Solar Cells: Toward a New Efficiency Regime journal January 2018
Development of Novel Conjugated Donor Polymers for High-Efficiency Bulk-Heterojunction Photovoltaic Devices journal November 2009
Fused Nonacyclic Electron Acceptors for Efficient Polymer Solar Cells journal January 2017
Solution-processed small-molecule solar cells with 6.7% efficiency journal November 2011
Deep Absorbing Porphyrin Small Molecule for High-Performance Organic Solar Cells with Very Low Energy Losses journal June 2015
High performance all-small-molecule solar cells: engineering the nanomorphology via processing additives journal January 2016
Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions journal December 1995
A New Nonfullerene Electron Acceptor with a Ladder Type Backbone for High-Performance Organic Solar Cells journal November 2016
Intensity Dependence of Current–Voltage Characteristics and Recombination in High-Efficiency Solution-Processed Small-Molecule Solar Cells journal April 2013
Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells journal November 2016
11.4% Efficiency non-fullerene polymer solar cells with trialkylsilyl substituted 2D-conjugated polymer as donor journal December 2016
A Facile Planar Fused-Ring Electron Acceptor for As-Cast Polymer Solar Cells with 8.71% Efficiency journal February 2016
Non-Fullerene Polymer Solar Cells Based on Alkylthio and Fluorine Substituted 2D-Conjugated Polymers Reach 9.5% Efficiency journal March 2016
Polymer solar cells journal February 2012
Small-molecule solar cells with efficiency over 9% journal November 2014
Efficient Charge Transfer and Fine-Tuned Energy Level Alignment in a THF-Processed Fullerene-Free Organic Solar Cell with 11.3% Efficiency journal November 2016
Fullerene-free small molecule organic solar cells with a high open circuit voltage of 1.15 V journal January 2016
Fullerene-Free Polymer Solar Cells with over 11% Efficiency and Excellent Thermal Stability journal April 2016
A Series of Simple Oligomer-like Small Molecules Based on Oligothiophenes for Solution-Processed Solar Cells with High Efficiency journal March 2015
Small-Molecule Acceptor Based on the Heptacyclic Benzodi(cyclopentadithiophene) Unit for Highly Efficient Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells journal March 2017
An All-Small-Molecule Organic Solar Cell with High Efficiency Nonfullerene Acceptor journal February 2015
Additive-Assisted Control over Phase-Separated Nanostructures by Manipulating Alkylthienyl Position at Donor Backbone for Solution-Processed, Non-Fullerene, All-Small-Molecule Solar Cells journal March 2014
Efficient Vacuum-Deposited Organic Solar Cells Based on a New Low-Bandgap Oligothiophene and Fullerene C60 journal November 2006
New Wide Band Gap Donor for Efficient Fullerene-Free All-Small-Molecule Organic Solar Cells journal January 2017
Effect of Temperature and Illumination on the Electrical Characteristics of Polymer–Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells journal January 2004
Surface Plasmonic Effects of Metallic Nanoparticles on the Performance of Polymer Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells journal January 2011
Photoinduced Electron Transfer from a Conducting Polymer to Buckminsterfullerene journal November 1992
9.73% Efficiency Nonfullerene All Organic Small Molecule Solar Cells with Absorption-Complementary Donor and Acceptor journal March 2017
Semiconducting polymer‐buckminsterfullerene heterojunctions: Diodes, photodiodes, and photovoltaic cells journal February 1993

Similar Records

Simplified synthetic routes for low cost and high photovoltaic performance n-type organic semiconductor acceptors
Journal Article · Thu Jan 31 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1438077

Naphthodithiophene‐Based Nonfullerene Acceptor for High‐Performance Organic Photovoltaics: Effect of Extended Conjugation
Journal Article · Thu Nov 23 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Advanced Materials · OSTI ID:1438077

Printed Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells with the Highest Efficiency of 9.5%
Journal Article · Mon Jan 22 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Advanced Energy Materials · OSTI ID:1438077

Related Subjects