Issue 18, 2020

Alkyl chain engineering of chlorinated acceptors for elevated solar conversion

Abstract

Alkyl chain engineering has been widely applied in the preparation of high-performance organic solar energy conversion materials. In this study, a series of high-performance acceptor–donor–acceptor–donor–acceptor non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) with core units functionalized with different alkyl chains (1-dodecyl, 2-ethylhexyl, 2-butyloctyl, and 2-hexyldecyl) and chlorinated end groups were designed and synthesized. All these molecules exhibited strong and broad absorption from 600 nm to 950 nm, low band gaps (1.34–1.39 eV), and high electron mobility. Furthermore, the single crystal of BTIC-BO-4Cl was successfully grown. The analysis of the single crystal revealed that this molecule formed a three-dimensional (3D) interpenetrating network due to multiple strong and short S⋯O, Cl⋯S, and Cl⋯π interactions among the adjacent BTIC-BO-4Cl molecules. This 3D interpenetrating network would definitely be beneficial for the transport of charge carriers and thus increase the electron mobility of the corresponding acceptor. When blended with the donor polymer PBDB-TF, it was found that the chlorinated non-fullerene acceptor with 2-butyloctyl-substituted side chains at the N positions displayed the highest device performance with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.43% among those acceptors. Our study demonstrates that the use of branched alkyl chains on nitrogen atoms is beneficial for the high efficiency of the core unit compared to those with linear chains, and the size of branched alkyl chains also has great effects on the resultant material and the corresponding device performance.

Graphical abstract: Alkyl chain engineering of chlorinated acceptors for elevated solar conversion

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 11月 2019
Accepted
19 2月 2020
First published
11 3月 2020

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020,8, 8903-8912

Author version available

Alkyl chain engineering of chlorinated acceptors for elevated solar conversion

D. Mo, H. Chen, J. Zhou, N. Tang, L. Han, Y. Zhu, P. Chao, H. Lai, Z. Xie and F. He, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020, 8, 8903 DOI: 10.1039/C9TA12558B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements