Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

Yuzhong Chen; Fujin Bai; Zhengxing Peng; Lei Zhu; Jianquan Zhang; Xinhui Zou; Yunpeng Qin; Ha Kyung Kim; Jun Yuan; Lik Kuen Ma; Jie Zhang; Han Yu; Philip C.Y. Chow; Fei Huang; Yingping Zou; Harald Ade; Feng Liu; He Yan

doi:10.1002/aenm.202003141

Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

Yuzhong Chen
, Fujin Bai
, Zhengxing Peng
, Lei Zhu
, Jianquan Zhang
, Xinhui Zou
, Yunpeng Qin
, Ha Kyung Kim
, Jun Yuan
, Lik Kuen Ma
, Jie Zhang
, Han Yu
, Philip C.Y. Chow
, Fei Huang
, Yingping Zou
, Harald Ade
, Feng Liu^*
, He Yan^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review

215 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Article number	2003141
Number of pages	10
Journal	Advanced Energy Materials
Volume	11
Issue number	3
Early online date	30 Nov 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202003141
Publication status	Published - 21 Jan 2021

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

User-Defined Keywords

asymmetric alkoxy substitution
morphology
organic solar cells
solubility
Y-series acceptors

Access to Document

10.1002/aenm.202003141

Cite this

Chen, Y., Bai, F., Peng, Z., Zhu, L., Zhang, J., Zou, X., Qin, Y., Kim, H. K., Yuan, J., Ma, L. K., Zhang, J., Yu, H., Chow, P. C. Y., Huang, F., Zou, Y., Ade, H., Liu, F., & Yan, H. (2021). Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High-Performance Organic Solar Cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 11(3), Article 2003141. https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202003141

@article{489220ebdf234f1bb0044e38201436f3,

title = "Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High-Performance Organic Solar Cells",

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 (Voc), 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 Voc 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.",

keywords = "asymmetric alkoxy substitution, morphology, organic solar cells, solubility, Y-series acceptors",

author = "Yuzhong Chen and Fujin Bai and Zhengxing Peng and Lei Zhu and Jianquan Zhang and Xinhui Zou and Yunpeng Qin and Kim, \{Ha Kyung\} and Jun Yuan and Ma, \{Lik Kuen\} and Jie Zhang and Han Yu and Chow, \{Philip C.Y.\} and Fei Huang and Yingping Zou and Harald Ade and Feng Liu and He Yan",

note = "Y.C. and F.B. contributed equally to this work. H.Y. acknowledges the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFA0705900) funded by MOST, the Basic and Applied Basic Research Major Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2019B030302007), Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials (project number 2019B121205002), the Shen Zhen Technology and Innovation Commission (project number JCYJ20170413173814007, JCYJ20170818113905024), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Research Impact Fund R6021-18, collaborative research fund C6023-19G, project numbers 16309218, 16310019, and 16303917), Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission for the support through projects ITC-CNERC14SC01 and ITS/471/18, and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 91433202). Z.P., Y.Q., and H.A. were supported by an ONR grant N000141712204. GIWAXS and RSoXS data were acquired at beamlines 7.3.3 and 11.0.1.2, respectively, at the Advanced Light Source, LBNL, which is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. L.Z. and F.L. were financially supported by the grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21734009, 11327902, 11574204, 11774224, and 21822505) and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0207700). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH",

year = "2021",

month = jan,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1002/aenm.202003141",

language = "English",

volume = "11",

journal = "Advanced Energy Materials",

issn = "1614-6832",

publisher = "John Wiley \& Sons Ltd",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

AU - Chen, Yuzhong

AU - Bai, Fujin

AU - Peng, Zhengxing

AU - Zhu, Lei

AU - Zhang, Jianquan

AU - Zou, Xinhui

AU - Qin, Yunpeng

AU - Kim, Ha Kyung

AU - Yuan, Jun

AU - Ma, Lik Kuen

AU - Zhang, Jie

AU - Yu, Han

AU - Chow, Philip C.Y.

AU - Huang, Fei

AU - Zou, Yingping

AU - Ade, Harald

AU - Liu, Feng

AU - Yan, He

N1 - Y.C. and F.B. contributed equally to this work. H.Y. acknowledges the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFA0705900) funded by MOST, the Basic and Applied Basic Research Major Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2019B030302007), Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials (project number 2019B121205002), the Shen Zhen Technology and Innovation Commission (project number JCYJ20170413173814007, JCYJ20170818113905024), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (Research Impact Fund R6021-18, collaborative research fund C6023-19G, project numbers 16309218, 16310019, and 16303917), Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission for the support through projects ITC-CNERC14SC01 and ITS/471/18, and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 91433202). Z.P., Y.Q., and H.A. were supported by an ONR grant N000141712204. GIWAXS and RSoXS data were acquired at beamlines 7.3.3 and 11.0.1.2, respectively, at the Advanced Light Source, LBNL, which is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. L.Z. and F.L. were financially supported by the grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21734009, 11327902, 11574204, 11774224, and 21822505) and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0207700). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

PY - 2021/1/21

Y1 - 2021/1/21

N2 - 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 (Voc), 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 Voc 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.

AB - 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 (Voc), 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 Voc 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.

KW - asymmetric alkoxy substitution

KW - morphology

KW - organic solar cells

KW - solubility

KW - Y-series acceptors

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85096882589

U2 - 10.1002/aenm.202003141

DO - 10.1002/aenm.202003141

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85096882589

SN - 1614-6832

VL - 11

JO - Advanced Energy Materials

JF - Advanced Energy Materials

IS - 3

M1 - 2003141

ER -

Asymmetric Alkoxy and Alkyl Substitution on Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

UN SDGs

User-Defined Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this