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Title: Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, a strategy of asymmetric alkyl and alkoxy substitution is applied to state‐of‐the‐art Y‐series nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs), and it achieves great performance in organic solar cell (OSC) devices. Since alkoxy groups can have a significant influence on the material properties of NFAs, alkoxy substitution is applied to the Y6 molecule in a symmetric manner. The resulting molecule (named Y6‐2O), despite showing improved open‐circuit voltage ( V oc ), yields extremely poor performance due to low solubility and excessive aggregation properties, a change that is due to the conformational locking effect of alkoxy groups. In contrast, asymmetric alkyl and alkoxy substitution on Y6, yields a molecule named Y6‐1O that can maintain the positive effect of V oc improvement and obtain reasonably good solubility. The resulting molecule Y6‐1O enables highly efficient nonfullerene OSCs with 17.6% efficiency and the asymmetric side‐chain strategy has the potential to be applied to other NFA‐material systems to further improve their performance.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [4];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology‐Shenzhen Research Institute No. 9 Yuexing first RD, Hi‐tech Park, Nanshan Shenzhen 518057 P. R. China, Department of Chemistry Guangdong‐Hong Kong‐Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials Energy Institute and Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration &, Reconstruction Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clear Water Bay Kowloon Hong Kong
  2. Department of Physics and Organic and Carbon Electronics Laboratories (ORaCEL) North Carolina State University Raleigh NC 27695 USA
  3. School of Physics and Astronomy and Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA) Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240 P. R. China
  4. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Central South University Changsha 410083 P. R. China
  5. Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices South China University of Technology (SCUT) Guangzhou 510640 P. R. China
  6. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology‐Shenzhen Research Institute No. 9 Yuexing first RD, Hi‐tech Park, Nanshan Shenzhen 518057 P. R. China, Department of Chemistry Guangdong‐Hong Kong‐Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials Energy Institute and Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration &, Reconstruction Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clear Water Bay Kowloon Hong Kong, Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices South China University of Technology (SCUT) Guangzhou 510640 P. R. China
Publication Date:
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1804529
Grant/Contract Number:  
DE‐AC02‐05CH11231
Resource Type:
Publisher's Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Advanced Energy Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials Journal Volume: 11 Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1614-6832
Publisher:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English

Citation Formats

Chen, Yuzhong, Bai, Fujin, Peng, Zhengxing, Zhu, Lei, Zhang, Jianquan, Zou, Xinhui, Qin, Yunpeng, Kim, Ha Kyung, Yuan, Jun, Ma, Lik‐Kuen, Zhang, Jie, Yu, Han, Chow, Philip C. Y., Huang, Fei, Zou, Yingping, Ade, Harald, Liu, Feng, and Yan, He. Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells. Germany: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1002/aenm.202003141.
Chen, Yuzhong, Bai, Fujin, Peng, Zhengxing, Zhu, Lei, Zhang, Jianquan, Zou, Xinhui, Qin, Yunpeng, Kim, Ha Kyung, Yuan, Jun, Ma, Lik‐Kuen, Zhang, Jie, Yu, Han, Chow, Philip C. Y., Huang, Fei, Zou, Yingping, Ade, Harald, Liu, Feng, & Yan, He. Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells. Germany. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202003141
Chen, Yuzhong, Bai, Fujin, Peng, Zhengxing, Zhu, Lei, Zhang, Jianquan, Zou, Xinhui, Qin, Yunpeng, Kim, Ha Kyung, Yuan, Jun, Ma, Lik‐Kuen, Zhang, Jie, Yu, Han, Chow, Philip C. Y., Huang, Fei, Zou, Yingping, Ade, Harald, Liu, Feng, and Yan, He. Mon . "Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells". Germany. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202003141.
@article{osti_1804529,
title = {Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells},
author = {Chen, Yuzhong and Bai, Fujin and Peng, Zhengxing and Zhu, Lei and Zhang, Jianquan and Zou, Xinhui and Qin, Yunpeng and Kim, Ha Kyung and Yuan, Jun and Ma, Lik‐Kuen and Zhang, Jie and Yu, Han and Chow, Philip C. Y. and Huang, Fei and Zou, Yingping and Ade, Harald and Liu, Feng and Yan, He},
abstractNote = {Abstract In this paper, a strategy of asymmetric alkyl and alkoxy substitution is applied to state‐of‐the‐art Y‐series nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs), and it achieves great performance in organic solar cell (OSC) devices. Since alkoxy groups can have a significant influence on the material properties of NFAs, alkoxy substitution is applied to the Y6 molecule in a symmetric manner. The resulting molecule (named Y6‐2O), despite showing improved open‐circuit voltage ( V oc ), yields extremely poor performance due to low solubility and excessive aggregation properties, a change that is due to the conformational locking effect of alkoxy groups. In contrast, asymmetric alkyl and alkoxy substitution on Y6, yields a molecule named Y6‐1O that can maintain the positive effect of V oc improvement and obtain reasonably good solubility. The resulting molecule Y6‐1O enables highly efficient nonfullerene OSCs with 17.6% efficiency and the asymmetric side‐chain strategy has the potential to be applied to other NFA‐material systems to further improve their performance.},
doi = {10.1002/aenm.202003141},
journal = {Advanced Energy Materials},
number = 3,
volume = 11,
place = {Germany},
year = {Mon Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Mon Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2020}
}

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