Issue 3, 2020

Branched versus linear: side-chain effect on fluorinated wide bandgap donors and their applications in organic solar cells

Abstract

We report a new series of wide band-gap small organic molecules as donor-materials featuring an indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b′]dithiophene (IDT) core and fluorinated thiophene linkers for solution-processed organic solar cells. Two isomeric aliphatic groups were introduced as side chains on the IDT units (coded I4FR-O and I4FR-EH). These donors have been systematically characterized and employed in bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices cooperating with a PC70BM electron acceptor. Replacing the linear alkyl group (n-octyl) in the IDT core with a branched constitutional isomer (2-ethylhexyl) results in a remarkable improvement in the performance of OPV devices: the optimized power conversion efficiencies of 2.10% and 4.30% were achieved for I4FR-O and I4FR-EH, respectively. Such wide efficiency gap can be partly attributed to a preferable morphology in the donor-fullerene blends of I4FR-EHvia such side-chain engineering.

Graphical abstract: Branched versus linear: side-chain effect on fluorinated wide bandgap donors and their applications in organic solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Sep 2019
Accepted
05 Dec 2019
First published
06 Dec 2019

New J. Chem., 2020,44, 753-760

Branched versus linear: side-chain effect on fluorinated wide bandgap donors and their applications in organic solar cells

T. Duan, R. Liang, Y. Fu, Y. Chang, Z. Kan, C. Zhong, Z. Xie and D. Yu, New J. Chem., 2020, 44, 753 DOI: 10.1039/C9NJ04621F

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