Exploring what prompts ITIC to become a superior acceptor in organic solar cell by combining molecular dynamics simulation with quantum chemistry calculation

Abstract

The interface characteristic is a crucial factor determining the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, our aim is to conduct a comparative study on the interface characteristics between the very famous non-fullerene acceptor, ITIC, and a fullerene acceptor, PC₇₁BM by combining molecular dynamics simulations with density functional theory. Based on some typical interface models of the acceptor ITIC or PC₇₁BM and the donor PBDB-T selected from MD simulation, besides the evaluation of charge separation/recombination rates, the relative positions of Frenkel exciton (FE) states and the charge transfer states along with their oscillator strengths are also employed to estimate the charge separation abilities. The results show that, when compared with those for the PBDB-T/PC₇₁BM interface, the CT states are more easily formed for the PBDB-T/ITIC interface by either the electron transfer from the FE state or direct excitation, indicating the better charge separation ability of the former. Moreover, the estimation of the charge separation efficiency manifests that although these two types of interfaces have similar charge recombination rates, the PBDB-T/ITIC interface possesses the larger charge separation rates than those of the PBDB-T/PC₇₁BM interface. Therefore, the better match between PBDB-T and ITIC together with a larger charge separation efficiency at the interface are considered to be the reasons for the prominent performance of ITIC in OSCs.