Regiospecific Incorporation of Acetylene Linker in High-Electron Mobility Dimerized Acceptors for Organic Solar Cells with High Efficiency (18.8%) and Long 1-Sun Lifetime (> 5000 h)

Abstract

The commercialization of organic solar cells (OSCs) requires both high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and long-term stability. However, the lifetime of the OSCs containing small-molecule acceptors (SMA) should be significantly enhanced. In this study, a series of planarity-controlled is developed, high electron mobility dimerized SMAs (DSMAs) and realize OSCs with high-performance (PCE = 18.8%) and high-stability (t(80%) lifetime = 5380 h under 1-Sun illumination). An acetylene linker with a planar triple bond is designed for dimerization of SMA units to afford the high backbone planarity necessary to achieve high crystallinity and electron mobility. To further engineer the molecular conformation and electron mobility of the DSMAs, different regioisomers of a Y-based SMA are dimerized to yield three regioisomerically distinct DSMAs, denoted as DYA-I, DYA-IO, and DYA-O, respectively. It is found that the crystallinity, electron mobility, and glass transition temperature of the DSMAs gradually increase in the order of DYA-O, DYA-IO, and DYA-I, which, in turn, enhance the PCE and device stability of the resulting OSCs; DYA-O (PCE = 16.45% and t(80%) lifetime = 3337 h) < DYA-IO (PCE = 17.54% and t(80%) lifetime = 4255 h) < DYA-I (PCE = 18.83% and t(80%) lifetime = 5380 h).