Side-Chain Engineering on Y-Series Acceptors with Chlorinated End Groups Enables High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

Chemical modifications of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) play vital roles in the development of high efficiency organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, on the basis of the previously reported molecule named Y6-1O, chlorination and inner side-chain engineering are adopted to endow the corresponding devices with higher open-circuit voltage (V-OC) and short-circuit current density (J(SC)) as well as good morphology for high fill factor (FF). As a result, the molecule named BTP1O-4Cl-C12 can help achieve a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.1% than that of Y6-1O (16.1%). Furthermore, the following comparisons between BTP1O-4Cl-C12 and the two symmetric acceptors named BTP2O-4Cl-C12 and BTP-4Cl-C12 demonstrate the effect of asymmetric alkoxy substitution on the outer side chains, which not only achieves a balance between V-OC and J(SC), but also help obtain appropriate morphology for efficient charge dissociation and suppressed charge recombination. Therefore, the asymmetric BTP1O-4Cl-C12 can achieve a higher PCE compared to the symmetric BTP2O-4Cl-C12 and BTP-4Cl-C12. The work not only reports an excellent NFA for high-performance OSCs, but also puts forward a series of methods for consecutive chemical modifications on Y-series acceptors, which can be further applied to boost the PCE of OSCs to a higher level.