Corrole-BODIPY Dyad as Small-Molecule Donor for Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

Area of Science:

• Organic electronics
• Materials science
• Photovoltaics

Background:

• Charge-transfer (CT) dyes are promising for organic photovoltaics (OPVs) due to their broad absorption.
• Corrole is an electron-rich donor, while BODIPY is an electron-deficient acceptor.
• Combining these creates a dyad with a wide absorption window for OPVs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize a novel corrole-BODIPY dyad as a donor material for organic solar cells.
• To evaluate the performance of solution-processed bulk heterojunction solar cells using this new dye.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of a corrole derivative as an electron-rich donor.
• Fabrication of bulk heterojunction solar cells with PC71BM as the acceptor.
• Characterization of optical and electronic properties, including absorption, band gap, and energy levels.

Main Results:

• The Cor-BODIPY molecule exhibits broad visible absorption and a low band gap (1.79 eV).
• Its frontier molecular orbital energy levels are complementary to PC71BM.
• Optimized devices achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.6%, with Jsc = 11.46 mA/cm², Voc = 0.90 V, and FF = 0.61.
• An incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 61% was recorded.

Conclusions:

• The novel corrole-BODIPY dyad is an effective donor for solution-processed organic solar cells.
• This molecular design leads to efficient charge transfer and broad light absorption.
• The achieved PCE of 6.6% highlights the potential of this class of materials for OPVs.