Cenqi Yan

A fused hexacyclic electron acceptor, IHIC, based on strong electron‐donating group dithienocyclopentathieno[3,2‐ b ]thiophene flanked by strong electron‐withdrawing group 1,1‐dicyanomethylene‐3‐indanone, is designed, synthesized, and applied in semitransparent organic solar cells (ST‐OSCs). IHIC exhibits strong near‐infrared absorption with extinction coefficients of up to 1.6 × 10 5 m −1 cm −1 , a narrow optical bandgap of 1.38 eV, and a high electron mobility of 2.4 × 10 −3 cm 2 V −1 s −1 . The ST‐OSCs based on blends of a narrow‐bandgap polymer donor PTB7‐Th and narrow‐bandgap IHIC acceptor exhibit a champion power conversion efficiency of 9.77% with an average visible transmittance of 36% and excellent device stability; this efficiency is much higher than any single‐junction and tandem ST‐OSCs reported in the literature.

We design and synthesize two isomeric fused-ring electron acceptors, FNIC1 and FNIC2, which have the same end-groups and side-chains, but isomeric fused-nine-ring cores. Subtle changes in the two isomers influence their electronic, optical, charge-transport, and morphological properties. As compared with FNIC1, FNIC2 film exhibits a red-shifted absorption peak at 794 nm (752 nm for FNIC1), larger electron affinity of 4.00 eV (3.92 eV for FNIC1), smaller ionization energy of 5.56 eV (5.61 eV for FNIC1), and higher electron mobility of 1.7 × 10–3 cm2 V–1 s–1 (1.2 × 10–3 cm2 V–1 s–1 for FNIC1). The as-cast organic solar cells based on PTB7-Th:FNIC2 blends exhibit a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.0%, which is significantly higher than that of PTB7-Th:FNIC1-based devices (10.3%). Semitransparent devices based on PTB7-Th:FNIC2 blends exhibit PCEs varying from 9.51% to 11.6% at different average visible transmittance (AVT, 20.3– 13.6%), significantly higher than those of PTB7-Th:FNIC1-based devices (7.58–9.14% with AVT of 20.2– 14.7%).

Abstract A fused tris(thienothiophene) (3TT) building block is designed and synthesized with strong electron‐donating and molecular packing properties, where three thienothiophene units are condensed with two cyclopentadienyl rings. Based on 3TT, a fused octacylic electron acceptor (FOIC) is designed and synthesized, using strong electron‐withdrawing 2‐(5/6‐fluoro‐3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydro‐1H‐inden‐1‐ylidene)‐malononitrile as end groups. FOIC exhibits absorption in 600–950 nm region peaked at 836 nm with extinction coefficient of up to 2 × 10 5 m –1 cm –1 , low bandgap of 1.32 eV, and high electron mobility of 1.2 × 10 –3 cm 2 V –1 s –1 . Compared with its counterpart ITIC3 based on indacenothienothiophene core, FOIC exhibits significantly upshifted highest occupied molecular orbital level, slightly downshifted lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level, significantly redshifted absorption, and higher mobility. The as‐cast organic solar cells (OSCs) based on blends of PTB7‐Th donor and FOIC acceptor without additional treatments exhibit power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) as high as 12.0%, which is much higher than that of PTB7‐Th: ITIC3 (8.09%). The as‐cast semitransparent OSCs based on the same blends show PCEs of up to 10.3% with an average visible transmittance of 37.4%.

Herein, a facile and effective strategy is demonstrated to unleash the full potential of existing photoactive materials.