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A comprehensive study on the relationship between the structure and the photophysical and photovoltaic properties of acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) type nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) is of pivotal importance to obtain design guidelines for high-performance organic photovoltaics (OPVs). In this study, we synthesized a D unit, NTT, in which the central benzene core, indacenodithieno[3,2-b]thiophene (IT), is replaced by naphthalene. Notably, NTTIC, an A–D–A type NFA with NTT as the D unit, showed a longer singlet exciton lifetime in the film than the IT-based benchmark NFA, ITIC. When paired with a conjugated polymer donor, PBDB-T, the NTTIC-based OPV device exhibited a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE = 9.95%) than the ITIC-based device (9.71%). Furthermore, due to the larger domain size of NTTIC in PBDB-T:NTTIC, the exciton diffusion (ED) at the donor/acceptor interface and the charge transfer (CT) were slower (14 ps in total) than those of PBDB-T:ITIC (7 ps in total). Nevertheless, the total efficiency of the ED and CT in PBDB-T:NTTIC was similar to that in PBDB-T:ITIC (95%) owing to the longer singlet exciton lifetime of the NTTIC film. These results demonstrate the high potential of naphthalene-cored D units of A–D–A type NFAs to achieve a long singlet exciton lifetime and a resultant high PCE in NFA-based OPVs.

Phase-separated structures in photoactive layers composed of electron donors and acceptors in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) generally exert a profound impact on the device performance. In this study, nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) where a heteronanographene central core was furnished with branched alkoxy chains of different lengths, TACIC-EH, TACIC-BO, and TACIC-HD, were prepared to adjust the aggregation tendency and systematically probe the relationships of film structures with photophysical and photovoltaic properties. The side-chain length showed negligible effects on the absorption properties and energy levels of TACICs. In addition, regardless of the chain length, all TACIC films exhibited characteristically long singlet exciton lifetimes (1330-2330 ps) compared to those in solution (≤220 ps). Using a conjugated polymer donor, PBDB-T, the best OPV performance was achieved with TACIC-BO that contained medium-length chains, exhibiting a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.92%. TACIC-HD with the longest chains showed deteriorated electron mobility due to the long insulating alkoxy groups. Therefore, the PBDB-T:TACIC-HD-based device revealed a low charge collection efficiency and PCE (8.21%) relative to the PBDB-T:TACIC-BO-based device, but their film morphologies were analogous. Meanwhile, TACIC-EH with the shortest chains showed low solubility and formed micrometer-sized large aggregates in the blend film with PBDB-T. Although the charge collection efficiency of PBDB-T:TACIC-EH was lower than that of PBDB-T:TACIC-BO, the efficiencies of exciton diffusion to the donor-acceptor interface were sufficiently high (98%) owing to the elongated singlet exciton lifetime of TACIC-EH. The PCE of the PBDB-T:TACIC-EH-based device remained moderate (7.10%). Therefore, TACICs with the long singlet exciton lifetimes in the films provide a clear guideline for NFAs with low sensitivity of OPV device performance to the blend film structures, which is advantageous for large-scale OPV production with high reproducibility.

Electron-acceptor small-molecules possessing a long exciton lifetime and a narrow energy band gap, opposing the energy gap law, are highly desirable for high-performance organic photovoltaics (OPVs) by realizing their efficient light-harvesting ability (LH), exciton diffusion (ED), and charge transfer (CT). Toward this goal, we designed an acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) type nonfullerene acceptor (NFA), TACIC, having an electron-donating, self-assembling two-dimensional (2D) nanographene unit, thienoazacoronene, at the center with electron-withdrawing groups at both ends. The TACIC film exhibited a narrow band gap (1.59 eV) with excellent LH. Surprisingly, the TACIC film showed an extremely long exciton lifetime (1.59 ns), suppressing undesirable nonradiative decay by its unique self-assembling behavior. When combined with a conjugated polymer donor, PBDB-T, slow ED and CT were observed (60 ps) with the excitation of TACIC owing to the large TACIC domain sizes. Nevertheless, the unusually high efficiencies of ED and CT (96% in total) were achieved by the long TACIC exciton lifetime. Additionally, unusual energy transfer (EnT) from the excited PBDB-T to TACIC was seen, demonstrating its dual LH role. The OPV device with PBDB-T and TACIC showed a high incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) exceeding 70% at up to 710 nm and a power conversion efficiency of ∼10%. This result will open up avenues for a rational strategy of OPVs where LH, ED, and CT from the acceptor side as well as LH, EnT, ED, and CT from the donor side can be better designed by using 2D nanographene as a promising building block for high-performance A–D–A type NFAs., 新しい電子受容性材料の設計指針を開発 --有機薄膜太陽電池をより高効率により簡便に--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2020-03-09.