Solution-Processable Small Molecules for High-Performance Organic Solar Cells with Rigidly Fluorinated...

Small molecules containing an oligothiophene backbone are simple but effective donor materials for organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, we incorporated rigid 2,2'-bithiophene (BT) or fluorinated 2,2'-bithiophene (FBT) as the central unit and synthesized two novel small molecules (TTH-D3TRh and TTF-D3TRh) with an oligothiophene backbone and 3-ethylrhodanine end groups. Both molecules exhibit good thermal stability as well as strong and broad absorption. The fluorination of the BT central unit made TTF-D3TRh possess a relatively lower-lying HOMO energy level, better molecular stacking, and higher mobility in comparison with those of TTH-D3TRh. Conventional OSCs were fabricated to evaluate the photovoltaic property of these two molecules. Without extra post-treatments, the conventional devices based on TTH-D3TRh and TTF-D3TRh showed high PCEs of 5.00 and 5.80%, respectively. The TTF-D3TRh device exhibited a higher performance, which can be attributed to the improved Voc of 0.92 V, Jsc of 10.04 mA cm(-2), and FF of 62.8%. Using an inverted device structure, the OSCs based on TTH-D3TRh and TTF-D3TRh showed largely elevated PCEs of 5.89 and 7.14%, respectively. The results indicated that the structurally simple TTH-D3TRh and TTF-D3TR molecules are potential donor candidates for achieving highly efficient OSCs. The strategy of fluorination and rigidity designation is an effective approach to develop oligothiophene-based small molecular donors for highly efficient solar cell applications.