Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Wanru Xu, Yilin Chang, Xiangwei Zhu, Zhenhua Wei, Xiaoli Zhang, Xiangnan Sun, Kun Lu, Zhixiang Wei
Summary: Small molecule donor/polymer acceptor (SD/PA)-type organic solar cells (OSCs) have attracted attention for their high efficiency and thermal stability. However, their development lags behind polymer donor/small molecule acceptor (PD/SA)-type OSCs. This review analyzes the key factors affecting the photovoltaic performances of SD/PA-type OSCs and provides insights on their future development.
CHINESE CHEMICAL LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Bin-Wen Chen, Piao-Yang Xu, Si-Hao Chen, Ke Luan, Zhen-Lin Qiu, Lu Wang, Le-Shan Dai, Yun-Fei Li, Da-Qin Yun, Lin-Long Deng, Su-Yuan Xie, Lan-Sun Zheng
Summary: Three novel donor-acceptor-acceptor small molecules with benzotriazole as the central building block are synthesized and investigated for their molecular structure, electrochemical behavior, and optical properties. Vacuum-deposited small-molecule organic solar cells (SMOSCs) fabricated with these molecules and C-70 as the acceptor exhibit power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in the range of 6.42-7.43%. One of the molecules shows a promising PCE of 14.84% under indoor illumination, demonstrating its potential in indoor photovoltaic applications.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jin-Woo Lee, Cheng Sun, Boo Soo Ma, Hyeong Jun Kim, Cheng Wang, Jong Min Ryu, Chulhee Lim, Taek-Soo Kim, Yun-Hi Kim, Soon-Ki Kwon, Bumjoon J. Kim
Summary: Researchers have developed a series of polymer acceptors based on non-fullerene small molecule acceptors, which show enhanced compatibility and performance when blended with high-performance polymer donors.
ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jin-Woo Lee, Cheng Sun, Dong Jun Kim, Min Young Ha, Daehee Han, Jin Su Park, Cheng Wang, Won Bo Lee, Soon-Ki Kwon, Taek-Soo Kim, Yun-Hi Kim, Bumjoon J. Kim
Summary: The study demonstrates the use of donor-acceptor alternating copolymer-type compatibilizers (DACCs) in high-performance SMA-based organic solar cells to enhance their power conversion efficiency, thermal stability, and mechanical robustness. Addition of DACCs effectively reduces interfacial tensions and stabilizes interfaces in polymer donor (P-D)-SMA blends, resulting in desired morphologies with exceptional thermal stability and mechanical robustness. OSCs with 20 wt % DACCs exhibit excellent morphological stability, retaining over 95% of initial power conversion efficiency after 300 hours at elevated temperature, contrasting with control OSCs without DACCs which degraded rapidly.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Baofeng Zhao, Weiping Wang, Zhiyuan Cong, Liuchang Wang, Haimei Wu, Shengna Liu, Chao Gao
Summary: This study explores the performance of small-molecule electron-acceptors with twisted main chain geometry in polymer solar cells, developing a novel acceptor i-V-4F to broaden its absorption range. Through matching with different polymer donors, a high conversion efficiency was achieved in PSCs.
ACS APPLIED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yuanyuan Cui, Jing Liu, Zhiqiang Li, Mingyang Ji, Meng Zhao, Meihua Shen, Xue Han, Tao Jia, Chenglong Li, Yue Wang
Summary: Organic-small-molecule photothermal materials with excellent photothermal properties have been proposed as promising solar absorbent materials. By fusing two strong electron-withdrawing units, a rigid planar acceptor with stronger electron-withdrawing ability was obtained to construct donor-acceptor-type organic-small-molecule solar-energy-absorbing material. The synthesized compound exhibited a strong intramolecular charge transfer character, broad optical absorption, favorable photothermal properties, and high photothermal conversion ability.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jiancheng Rao, Liuqing Yang, Xue Li, Lei Zhao, Shumeng Wang, Hongkun Tian, Junqiao Ding, Lixiang Wang
Summary: A novel steric locking strategy was proposed by introducing methyl groups into D-A conjugated polymers, leading to efficient TADF with extremely low energy splitting. Devices fabricated using this strategy exhibited record-high external quantum efficiency.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Xiaomin Wu, Xiangyu Hao, Ping Deng, Huipeng Chen
Summary: A newly designed and synthesized polymerized small-molecule acceptor, NC-PY6, showed promising results in polymer solar cells with the polymer donor D18, demonstrating the potential of this molecular design strategy for high-performance all-polymer solar cells.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Yan Zheng, Sunan Bao, Hang Yang, Hongyu Fan, Dongdong Fan, Chaohua Cui, Yongfang Li
Summary: IDT units have great potential in designing efficient small-molecule donors.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Xianhu Wu, Mingrui Zhang, Guiyuan Wu, Guanglei Cui, Jieyu Bi, Nian Liu, Ping Li, Chunyi Zhao, Zewen Zuo, Lingbing Kong, Min Gu
Summary: Triphenylamine-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole-triphenylamine (TBT) small-molecule material is used as an interfacial modification layer between NiOx and perovskite to improve the conductivity, passivate defects, and inhibit carrier recombination. The TBT-based device achieves a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.84% and retains 90% of its initial efficiency after 1000 hours in a controlled environment.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Eun-Bi Abdulah, Eun-Bi Kim, M. Shaheer Akhtar, Khalid Alotaibi, Anees A. Ansari, Sadia Ameen
Summary: This paper demonstrates the design and synthesis of a pi-conjugated small organic molecule with improved thermal stability and absorption spectra for potential use in organic solar devices. The optimized device using this molecule achieves a high power conversion efficiency of approximately 6.72% and exhibits excellent stability for up to 15 days under ambient temperature.
ORGANIC ELECTRONICS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Huazhe Liang, Xingqi Bi, Hongbin Chen, Tengfei He, Yi Lin, Yunxin Zhang, Kangqiao Ma, Wanying Feng, Zaifei Ma, Guankui Long, Chenxi Li, Bin Kan, Hongtao Zhang, Oleg A. Rakitin, Xiangjian Wan, Zhaoyang Yao, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: Given the ease of synthesis and polarization of bromine compared to homomorphic fluorine and chlorine, it is surprising that high-performance brominated small molecule acceptors are rare. This may be due to undesirable film morphologies caused by steric hindrance and excessive crystallinity. To overcome this, three acceptors were constructed with stepwise bromination on central units to enhance intermolecular packing, crystallinity, and dielectric constant without damaging favorable intermolecular packing through end groups. As a result, PM6:CH22-based binary organic solar cells achieved the highest efficiency of 19.06% for brominated acceptors, and a record-breaking efficiency of 15.70% when the active layers were further thickened to around 500 nm. By exhibiting such a rare high-performance brominated acceptor, this work highlights the potential for achieving record-breaking organic solar cells through delicate bromination.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Haijun Bin, Tom P. A. Van der Po, Junyu Li, Bas T. van Gorkom, Martijn M. Wienk, Rene A. J. Janssen
Summary: Efficient organic solar cells based on a blend of PBDS-T and BTP-eC9 as the active layer materials are reported. The optimized device shows high open-circuit voltage, low photon-energy loss, and high internal quantum efficiency, leading to a power conversion efficiency of 16.4%. PBDS-T is a promising donor polymer due to its good solubility, wide optical bandgap, and high molecular weight synthesis capability. By annealing the as-cast films in solvent vapor, the device performance is significantly improved.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Sanjay Sandhu, Bommaramoni Yadagiri, Senthilkumar Muthu, Ashok Kumar Kaliamurthy, Jongdeok Park, Hyeong Cheol Kang, Junyeong Ryu, Jae-Joon Lee
Summary: In this study, a novel bidentate material BDTBT is synthesized and used as a passivation layer for perovskite solar cells. The incorporation of BDTBT improves the power conversion efficiency and stability of the perovskite solar cells by reducing surface defects and increasing hole transfer.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Wenjing Zhao, Hao Lin, Yong Li, Dapeng Wang, Jie Wang, Zhike Liu, Ningyi Yuan, Jianning Ding, Qiang Wang, Shengzhong (Frank) Liu
Summary: This study adopts an organic acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) molecule called IDT-OD as a defect passivation agent to improve the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The symmetrical double arms structure of IDT-OD molecule helps to form a superior perovskite layer, resulting in enhanced performance of the cells.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Fangfang Huang, Zhixiang Li, Guangkun Song, Changzun Jiang, Yang Yang, Jian Wang, Xiangjian Wan, Chenxi Li, Zhaoyang Yao, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: Atomic replacement on platforms of nonfullerene acceptor (NFA) can optimize the performance and enhance energy levels, absorptions, and charge transfer dynamics. The newly developed NFA FOSe-2Cl, which replaces sulfur atoms with selenium atoms, shows improved energy levels, redshifted absorption, enhanced molecular packing, and accelerated charge transfer/transport dynamics compared to FO-2Cl. The organic solar cell based on FOSe-2Cl achieves a significantly improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.94% and reduced energy loss (E-loss) of 0.670 eV.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Heng Zhao, Jingwei Xue, Hongbo Wu, Baojun Lin, Yuhang Cai, Ke Zhou, Daqin Yun, Zheng Tang, Wei Ma
Summary: The power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells has reached high values, but current fabrication methods using toxic solvents and limited photoactive layer thickness restrict their practical development. This study successfully fabricated high-efficiency, thick-film organic solar cells using non-halogenated solvents and hot slot-die coating technique, leading to the industrial development of organic solar cells.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zhe Zhang, Zhixiang Li, Peiran Wang, Hongbin Chen, Kangqiao Ma, Yunxin Zhang, Tainan Duan, Chenxi Li, Zhaoyang Yao, Bin Kan, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: Developing new polymerized small molecular acceptor (PSMA) is crucial for improving the performance of all-polymer solar cells. Two PSMAs (namely PZC16 and PZC17) are reported based on the newly developed CH-series small molecule acceptors. Non-aromatic conjugated units are adopted as the linkers to reduce molecular torsion. The PM6:PZC17-based devices exhibit significantly higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to PM6:PZC16-based devices, and the large area device achieves an excellent PCE of 15.14%, among the top performance for reported all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs).
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Kangqiao Ma, Wanying Feng, Huazhe Liang, Hongbin Chen, Yuxin Wang, Xiangjian Wan, Zhaoyang Yao, Chenxi Li, Bin Kan, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: This study reports three small-molecule donors with alkylated thiazole side groups and investigates their performance in organic solar cells. The elongation of the alkyl side chain affects the crystallinity and miscibility, leading to different degrees of phase separation after blending with BTP-eC9. The HD-1-based device shows the best performance with proper phase separation and dynamic carrier behavior, achieving an outstanding power conversion efficiency of 17.19%.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Yu Zhu, Chen Geng, Lianghao Hu, Lin Liu, Yangzhi Zhu, Yao Yao, Chenxi Li, Yanfeng Ma, Guanghui Li, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: Researchers have successfully designed and fabricated a skin-like second-near-infrared (NIR-II) photodetector with high photo-sensitivity, fast photoresponse, and excellent flexibility. The photodetector, based on a simple bilayer structure combining highly conducting MXene and photo-sensitive lead sulfide quantum dots, achieves efficient photocarrier separation at the interface and efficient transport across the layers. The device also exhibits improved optoelectronic performance and mechanical stability, making it suitable for various practical and high-performance flexible wireless photodetection systems.
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Zechen Li, Xiaojun Li, Jingwei Xue, Jinyuan Zhang, Can Zhu, Jing Li, Wei Ma, Lei Meng, Yongfang Li
Summary: A new A-DA ' D-A structured narrow bandgap small molecular acceptor (SMA) Se46, utilizing benzoselenadiazole as the A' unit and branched 2-butyloctyl as upper side chains in its DA' D central fused ring, was successfully designed and synthesized. Se46 exhibits red-shifted absorption and higher energy levels compared to other small molecular acceptors L8-BO and Y6, resulting in higher power conversion efficiency, short circuit current density, and open circuit voltage in organic solar cells. This study demonstrates that selenium substitution and branched alkyl upper side chains are effective strategies for enhancing the photovoltaic performance of narrow bandgap A-DA ' D-A type acceptors.
ACS ENERGY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tengfei Li, Gangjian Hu, Liting Tao, Jizhong Jiang, Jingming Xin, Yawen Li, Wei Ma, Liang Shen, Yanjun Fang, Yuze Lin
Summary: High-sensitivity organic photodetectors (OPDs) with strong near-infrared (NIR) photoresponse have been developed by introducing quinoid-terminals with high Mulliken-electronegativity, extending the absorption range to below silicon bandgap. These OPDs exhibit high detectivity (D*) in the NIR range, surpassing the performance of commercial InGaAs photodetectors. Furthermore, a spectrometer prototype and NIR imaging have been successfully demonstrated using these OPDs.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Weiping Wang, Baofeng Zhao, Heng Zhao, Zhiyuan Cong, Liuchang Wang, Haimei Wu, Wei Ma, Zhi Yang, Zihui Meng, Chao Gao
Summary: A series of asymmetric A-pi-D-pi'-A non-fullerene acceptors were designed and synthesized, and h-IEICO-4F and h-IEICO-4Cl showed excellent photovoltaic performances due to their special molecular structures and electron-attracting properties, with an efficiency of 11.65% achieved for the J52:h-IEICO-4F device.
ACS APPLIED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hebin Wang, Junzi Li, Haolin Lu, Sehrish Gull, Tianyin Shao, Yunxin Zhang, Tengfei He, Yongsheng Chen, Tingchao He, Guankui Long
Summary: In this study, a novel chiral hybrid germanium halide material was developed with large anisotropy factors and high laser-induced damage thresholds. Its linear and nonlinear chiroptical properties were systematically investigated, showing high values of anisotropy factors and second-order nonlinear optical coefficient. These findings provide a new avenue for lead-free chiral hybrid metal halides in nonlinear chiroptical applications.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Yingjun Xia, Chen Geng, Xingqi Bi, Mingpeng Li, Yu Zhu, Zhaoyang Yao, Xiangjian Wan, Guanghui Li, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: Researchers have designed and synthesized ultranarrow bandgap acceptors for near-infrared organic photodetectors, achieving high responsivity and detectivity by reducing energetic disorder, broadening the absorption spectrum, and improving charge transport.
ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Zhong Zheng, Jianqiu Wang, Junzhen Ren, Shijie Wang, Yafei Wang, Wei Ma, Lei Zheng, Hao Li, Yanjie Tang, Shaoqing Zhang, Jianhui Hou
Summary: Meniscus-guided coating is widely used in the printing process of photovoltaic electronics and offers outstanding depositing accuracy, functional diversity, and operating convenience. However, there is still limited understanding about the hydrodynamic behaviors of bulk heterojunction ink and the key dynamic parameter that governs film formation. In this study, we establish a principle to accurately evaluate the Hamaker constant and reveal the critical effect of precursor film length on flow evolution, polymer aggregation, and final morphology. Our prediction method for precursor film length enables accurate tracing of the optimal coating speed. Furthermore, a power conversion efficiency of 18.39% has been achieved in a 3-cm(2) cell using blade coating, with only a slight reduction from 19.40% in a 0.04-cm(2) cell using spin coating.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hongbin Chen, Zhe Zhang, Peiran Wang, Yunxin Zhang, Kangqiao Ma, Yi Lin, Tainan Duan, Tengfei He, Zaifei Ma, Guankui Long, Chenxi Li, Bin Kan, Zhaoyang Yao, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: Compared to linear NFAs, multi-dimensional NFAs with extended conjugated structures in multiple directions show potential for improving absorption, molecular packing, and charge transport dynamics in organic solar cells. In this study, a conjugated-skeleton connection mode is developed, extending linear molecular structures towards three-dimensions. The resulting 3D NFAs exhibit low reorganization energy, fibrillar network film morphology, enhanced charge transport behavior, and improved stability. By optimizing the molecular geometry using fluorine-induced noncovalent conformational locks, a remarkable efficiency of 17.05% is achieved in binary bulk-heterojunction OSCs based on CH8-1, which represents the highest value for multi-dimensional acceptors to date. This work paves the way for further molecular structural optimization of state-of-the-art NFAs.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Zhaochen Suo, Jian Liu, Shitong Li, Zhaoyang Yao, Chenxi Li, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: Interface engineering with the molecule NMA-C0 as a modifying material on ZnO in inverted structure organic solar cells (OSCs) can simultaneously enhance the efficiency and stability of the cells. This study demonstrates that NMA-C0 modified devices achieve a significantly enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.31% with improved thermal and illumination stability compared to control devices.
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY FRONTIERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Huazhe Liang, Hongbin Chen, Yalu Zou, Yunxin Zhang, Yaxiao Guo, Xiangjian Cao, Xingqi Bi, Zhaoyang Yao, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Chen
Summary: This study successfully constructed three CH-series acceptors with hetero-di-halogenated central units, and obtained a high power conversion efficiency through CH-FB-based OSCs.
CHEMICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)