Dimer Acceptor Adopting a Flexible Linker for Efficient and Durable Organic Solar Cells

Feng Qi; Yanxun Li; Rui Zhang; Francis R. Lin; Kaikai Liu; Qunping Fan; Alex K.-Y. Jen

doi:10.1002/anie.202303066

Dimer Acceptor Adopting a Flexible Linker for Efficient and Durable Organic Solar Cells

Feng Qi (Co-first Author), Yanxun Li (Co-first Author), Rui Zhang, Francis R. Lin, Kaikai Liu, Qunping Fan, Alex K.-Y. Jen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

107 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have advanced rapidly due to the development of new photovoltaic materials. However, the long-term stability of OSCs still poses a severe challenge for their commercial deployment. To address this issue, a dimer acceptor (dT9TBO) with flexible linker is developed for incorporation into small-molecule acceptors to form molecular alloy with enhanced intermolecular packing and suppressed molecular diffusion to stabilize active layer morphology. Consequently, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based device displays an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.41 % with excellent thermal stability and negligible decay after being aged at 65 °C for 1800 h. Moreover, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based flexible OSC also exhibits excellent mechanical durability, maintaining 95 % of its initial PCE after being bended repetitively for 1500 cycles. This work provides a simple and effective way to fine-tune the molecular packing with stabilized morphology to overcome the trade-off between OSC efficiency and stability. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Original language	English
Article number	e202303066
Journal	Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume	62
Issue number	21
Online published	22 Mar 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202303066
Publication status	Published - 15 May 2023

Funding

A.K.Y.J. thanks the sponsorship of the Lee Shau-Kee Chair Professor (Materials Science), and the support from the APRC Grants (9380086, 9610508) of the City University of Hong Kong, the TCFS Grant (GHP/018/20SZ) and MRP Grant (MRP/040/21X) from the Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong, the Green Tech Fund (202020164) from the Environment and Ecology Bureau of Hong Kong, the GRF grants (11307621, 11316422) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the CRF grant (C6023-19GF) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (SGDX20201103095412040), Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2019B030302007). The authors sincerely thank Prof. H.-L. Yip at the City University of Hong Kong for experimental assistances. R. Zhang thanks Prof. Chenhui Zhu for the GIWAXS measurement at beamline 7.3.3 at the Advanced Light Source, LBNL, which is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Research Keywords

Dimer Acceptor
Flexible Linker
Mechanical Performance
Solar Cells
Stability

Publisher's Copyright Statement

COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Qi, F., Li, Y., Zhang, R., Lin, F. R., Liu, K., Fan, Q., & Jen, A. K-Y. (2023). Dimer Acceptor Adopting a Flexible Linker for Efficient and Durable Organic Solar Cells. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 62(21), [e202303066], which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202303066.
This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.

RGC Funding Information

RGC-funded

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Cite this

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title = "Dimer Acceptor Adopting a Flexible Linker for Efficient and Durable Organic Solar Cells",

abstract = "Organic solar cells (OSCs) have advanced rapidly due to the development of new photovoltaic materials. However, the long-term stability of OSCs still poses a severe challenge for their commercial deployment. To address this issue, a dimer acceptor (dT9TBO) with flexible linker is developed for incorporation into small-molecule acceptors to form molecular alloy with enhanced intermolecular packing and suppressed molecular diffusion to stabilize active layer morphology. Consequently, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based device displays an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.41 % with excellent thermal stability and negligible decay after being aged at 65 °C for 1800 h. Moreover, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based flexible OSC also exhibits excellent mechanical durability, maintaining 95 % of its initial PCE after being bended repetitively for 1500 cycles. This work provides a simple and effective way to fine-tune the molecular packing with stabilized morphology to overcome the trade-off between OSC efficiency and stability. {\textcopyright} 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.",

keywords = "Dimer Acceptor, Flexible Linker, Mechanical Performance, Solar Cells, Stability",

author = "Feng Qi and Yanxun Li and Rui Zhang and Lin, {Francis R.} and Kaikai Liu and Qunping Fan and Jen, {Alex K.-Y.}",

year = "2023",

month = may,

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doi = "10.1002/anie.202303066",

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journal = "Angewandte Chemie - International Edition",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Dimer Acceptor Adopting a Flexible Linker for Efficient and Durable Organic Solar Cells

AU - Qi, Feng

AU - Li, Yanxun

AU - Zhang, Rui

AU - Lin, Francis R.

AU - Liu, Kaikai

AU - Fan, Qunping

AU - Jen, Alex K.-Y.

PY - 2023/5/15

Y1 - 2023/5/15

N2 - Organic solar cells (OSCs) have advanced rapidly due to the development of new photovoltaic materials. However, the long-term stability of OSCs still poses a severe challenge for their commercial deployment. To address this issue, a dimer acceptor (dT9TBO) with flexible linker is developed for incorporation into small-molecule acceptors to form molecular alloy with enhanced intermolecular packing and suppressed molecular diffusion to stabilize active layer morphology. Consequently, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based device displays an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.41 % with excellent thermal stability and negligible decay after being aged at 65 °C for 1800 h. Moreover, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based flexible OSC also exhibits excellent mechanical durability, maintaining 95 % of its initial PCE after being bended repetitively for 1500 cycles. This work provides a simple and effective way to fine-tune the molecular packing with stabilized morphology to overcome the trade-off between OSC efficiency and stability. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

AB - Organic solar cells (OSCs) have advanced rapidly due to the development of new photovoltaic materials. However, the long-term stability of OSCs still poses a severe challenge for their commercial deployment. To address this issue, a dimer acceptor (dT9TBO) with flexible linker is developed for incorporation into small-molecule acceptors to form molecular alloy with enhanced intermolecular packing and suppressed molecular diffusion to stabilize active layer morphology. Consequently, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based device displays an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.41 % with excellent thermal stability and negligible decay after being aged at 65 °C for 1800 h. Moreover, the PM6 : Y6 : dT9TBO-based flexible OSC also exhibits excellent mechanical durability, maintaining 95 % of its initial PCE after being bended repetitively for 1500 cycles. This work provides a simple and effective way to fine-tune the molecular packing with stabilized morphology to overcome the trade-off between OSC efficiency and stability. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

KW - Dimer Acceptor

KW - Flexible Linker

KW - Mechanical Performance

KW - Solar Cells

KW - Stability

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DO - 10.1002/anie.202303066

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 1433-7851

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JO - Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

JF - Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

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ER -

Dimer Acceptor Adopting a Flexible Linker for Efficient and Durable Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

RGC Funding Information

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GRF: Molecular Engineering of 1D Hybrid Perovskites for Improving the Performance and Stability of Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

ITF: Development of Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cell with Safe-to-Use

ITF: Using High-Throughput Optical Model to Design High Performance Thin Film Structures for Next-Generation Glass Materials and Products

Cite this

Dimer Acceptor Adopting a Flexible Linker for Efficient and Durable Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

RGC Funding Information

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Projects

GRF: Molecular Engineering of 1D Hybrid Perovskites for Improving the Performance and Stability of Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

ITF: Development of Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cell with Safe-to-Use

ITF: Using High-Throughput Optical Model to Design High Performance Thin Film Structures for Next-Generation Glass Materials and Products

Cite this