Article,

Donor and Acceptor Unit Sequences Influence Material Performance in Benzo1,2-b:4,5-b′dithiophene–6,7-Difluoroquinoxaline Small Molecule Donors for BHJ Solar Cells

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Advanced Functional Materials, 26 (39): 7103--7114 (2016)
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201602162

Abstract

Well-defined small molecule (SM) donors can be used as alternatives to π-conjugated polymers in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells with fullerene acceptors (e.g., PC61/71BM). Taking advantage of their synthetic tunability, combinations of various donor and acceptor motifs can lead to a wide range of optical, electronic, and self-assembling properties that, in turn, may impact material performance in BHJ solar cells. In this report, it is shown that changing the sequence of donor and acceptor units along the π-extended backbone of benzo1,2-b:4,5-b′dithiophene–6,7-difluoroquinoxaline SM donors critically impacts (i) molecular packing, (ii) propensity to order and preferential aggregate orientations in thin-films, and (iii) charge transport in BHJ solar cells. In these systems (SM1-3), it is found that 6,7-difluoroquinoxaline (2FQ) motifs directly appended to the central benzo1,2-b:4,5-b′dithiophene (BDT) unit yield a lower-bandgap analogue (SM1) with favorable molecular packing and aggregation patterns in thin films, and optimized BHJ solar cell efficiencies of ≈6.6%. 1H-1H DQ-SQ NMR analyses indicate that SM1 and its counterpart with 2FQ motifs substituted as end-group SM3 possess distinct self-assembly patterns, correlating with the significant charge transport and BHJ device efficiency differences observed for the two analogous SM donors (avg. 6.3% vs 2.0%, respectively).

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