High-Performance Solution-Processed Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on Selenophene-Containing Perylene Bisimide Acceptor

Abstract

Non-fullerene acceptors have recently attracted tremendous interest because of their potential as alternatives to fullerene derivatives in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells. However, the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) have lagged far behind those of the polymer/fullerene system, mainly because of the low fill factor (FF) and photocurrent. Here we report a novel perylene bisimide (PBI) acceptor, SdiPBI-Se, in which selenium atoms were introduced into the perylene core. With a well-established wide-band-gap polymer (PDBT-T1) as the donor, a high efficiency of 8.4% with an unprecedented high FF of 70.2% is achieved for solution-processed non-fullerene organic solar cells. Efficient photon absorption, high and balanced charge carrier mobility, and ultrafast charge generation processes in PDBT-T1:SdiPBI-Se films account for the high photovoltaic performance. Our results suggest that non-fullerene acceptors have enormous potential to rival or even surpass the performance of their fullerene counterparts.

Environmentally-friendly solvent processed fullerene-free organic solar cells enabled by screening halogen-free solvent additives

“…Great efforts have been made to improve the power conversion effi-ciencies (PCEs) of OSCs by utilizing novel materials and new processing methods over the past decades [1,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Recently, high-performance non-fullerene acceptor materials, especially the small-molecular acceptors (SMAs), were successfully developed [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. These SMAs materials exhibit excellent solubility in non-halogen solvents, such as o-xylene (XY), anisole and tetrahydrofuran (THF) [46], which have brought the possibility of fabricating high-performance non-fullerene OSCs using non-halogen solvent systems.…”

Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells

“…11 These results have revived interest in the use of P3HT for high performing devices and non-fullerene acceptors. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] The combination of stability, cost and performance for P3HT:NFA devices, make them a compelling choice for commercialization of OPV compared to devices using fullerenes, for which the high costs and energy involved are prohibitive for large scale production.Recently, multi-component heterojunctions (ternary or more) have emerged as a promising strategy to overcome the power conversion efficiency (PCE) bottleneck associated with binary bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. 3,4,[19][20][21][22][23]24 However, simultaneous increase in the Voc, Jsc and FF is a challenge in the ternary approach because of the trade-off between photocurrent and voltage.…”

High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on a Selenium‐Containing Polymer Donor and a Twisted Perylene Bisimide Acceptor

“…Extensive studies have been carried out to develop polymeric and small molecule acceptors over the past decade 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. A number of high performance systems have been recently reported with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 8%, comparable to and exceeding BHJ organic solar cells made from fullerene acceptors in performance 15, 16, 17, 18…”