An efficient non-fullerene acceptor based on central and peripheral naphthalene diimides

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Electronics
• Photovoltaics

Background:

• Non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) are crucial for advancing organic solar cell (OSC) technology.
• Naphthalene diimide (NDI) based molecules offer promising electronic properties for NFAs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and synthesize a novel NDI-based non-fullerene electron acceptor (N10).
• To evaluate the performance of N10 in solution-processable bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells.

Main Methods:

• Chemical synthesis and characterization of the N10 molecule.
• Fabrication and testing of BHJ devices using poly(3-hexyl thiophene) (P3HT) as the donor polymer.
• Performance evaluation including power conversion efficiency (PCE).

Main Results:

• The synthesized N10 exhibited good solubility and excellent thermal stability.
• N10 demonstrated complementary energy levels with the P3HT donor polymer.
• A record power conversion efficiency of 7.65% was achieved in P3HT:N10 BHJ devices (1:1.2 ratio).

Conclusions:

• N10 represents a highly efficient NDI core-based non-fullerene acceptor.
• The developed N10 molecule shows significant potential for high-performance organic solar cells.