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Dual Conformational Locks Enable Stable and Efficient Nonfullerene Acceptors without Exocyclic Vinyl Linkages
Zhe Hao1,2, Siyuan Li1,2, Zhilong He1,2
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
|March 5, 2026
Summary
Researchers developed novel nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) for organic solar cells (OSCs) by incorporating dual conformational locks. This strategy enhances both efficiency and stability, overcoming a key challenge in photovoltaic material development.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Organic Electronics
- Photovoltaics
Background:
- Organic solar cells (OSCs) face commercialization hurdles due to the intrinsic instability of photovoltaic materials.
- Exocyclic vinylene linkages in nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) are a major cause of photochemical degradation.
- Replacing vinylene linkages with C-C single bonds improves stability but can cause conformational disorder and reduce device performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and synthesize novel A-D-A type NFAs that overcome the efficiency-stability trade-off in organic solar cells.
- To enhance molecular planarity and intermolecular packing in NFAs through strategic conformational locking.
- To improve the photostability and thermal stability of NFAs for long-term operational viability.
Main Methods:
- Synthesized three A-D-A type NFAs with C-C single bonds connecting electron-rich cores and electron-deficient terminals.
- Incorporated heteroatoms (fluorine and alkoxyl groups) into NFAs to induce noncovalent interactions (F···S and S···O) for conformational locking.
- Characterized the structural, optical, and morphological properties of the synthesized NFAs and fabricated OSC devices.
Main Results:
- The dual conformational locking strategy resulted in highly planar NFAs with enhanced intramolecular charge transfer and ordered intermolecular packing.
- NFAs exhibited bathochromically shifted absorption, improved photon harvesting, and refined bulk heterojunction morphology.
- Organic solar cells utilizing the F6OF acceptor achieved a power conversion efficiency of 10.45% with exceptional photostability (94.0% after 72h illumination) and thermal stability (96.2% after 144h annealing at 100°C).
Conclusions:
- The dual conformational locking strategy is a promising approach for simultaneously achieving high efficiency and long-term operational stability in organic photovoltaics.
- Strategically engineered NFAs with restricted C-C single bond rotation offer a pathway to overcome the limitations of traditional vinylene-based acceptors.
- This work provides a new design paradigm for developing next-generation organic photovoltaic materials with enhanced performance and durability.
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