Acenaphtho[1,2-b]quinoxaline diimides derivative as a potential small molecule non-fullerene acceptor for organic solar cells

We designed and synthesized a small molecule acenaphtho[1,2-b]quinoxaline diimide derivative AQI-T2 as an electron-accepting material for non-fullerene organic solar cells. This molecule exhibits a relatively broad absorption band from 300 to 650 nm, with a moderately low-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level of -3.64 eV. Non-fullerene organic solar cells with conventional structure using PTB7-Th as the electron donor and AQI-T2 as the electron acceptor exhibited moderate photovoltaic performances. The best performance was attained from the pristine device, which showed a power conversion efficiency of 0.77% with a relatively high open-circuit voltage of 0.86 V, a short circuit current of 2.04 mA cm(-2) and a fill factor of 43.98%. These results indicated that this n-type molecule can be a promising electron-accepting material for non-fullerene organic solar cells. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.