Asymmetric flexible strategies enable liquid crystalline transitions during thermal annealing of the device in organic solar cells

Abstract

Using liquid crystalline (LC) small molecule donors with good crystallinity and ordered molecular packing to regulate the morphology of an active layer has emerged as an effective strategy. We employed an asymmetric flexible strategy to synthesize two LC small molecule donors LCS6 and LCS8, and the nematic LC state of the two molecules was clearly determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy (POM). Under the action of long alkoxy side chains, the LC transition temperature (130 °C) was successfully reduced to the commonly used temperature for thermal annealing (TA), which facilitates a direct study of the relationship between the LC properties and device performance. The morphology analysis suggests that a notable reduction in the phase separation scale and aggregation after TA may be attributed to the self-assembly behavior inherent to LC materials.

Graphical abstract: Asymmetric flexible strategies enable liquid crystalline transitions during thermal annealing of the device in organic solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Aug 2024
Accepted
30 Sep 2024
First published
04 Oct 2024

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024, Advance Article

Asymmetric flexible strategies enable liquid crystalline transitions during thermal annealing of the device in organic solar cells

D. Han, M. Ding, B. Tang, K. Song, J. Lv, X. Bao and M. Sun, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4TC03708A

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