Highly efficient fullerene and non-fullerene based ternary organic solar cells incorporating a new tetrathiocin-cored semiconductor
Abstract
A new dual-chain oligothiophene-based organic semiconductor, EH-5T-TTC, is presented. The molecule contains two conjugated chains linked by a fused tetrathiocin core. X-ray crystallography reveals a boat conformation within the 8-membered sulfur heterocycle core and extensive π–π and intermolecular sulfur–sulfur interactions in the bulk, leading to a 2-dimensional structure. This unusual molecule has been studied as a ternary component in organic solar cell blends containing the electron donor PTB7-Th and both fullerene (PC71BM) and non-fullerene acceptors ITIC and EH-IDTBR. By incorporating EH-5T-TTC as a ternary component, the power conversion efficiency of the binary blends containing non-fullerene acceptor increases by 17% (from 7.8% to 9.2%) and by 85% for the binary blend with fullerene acceptor (from 3.3% to 6.3%). Detailed characterisation of the ternary blend systems implies that the ternary small molecule EH-5T-TTC functions differently in polymer:fullerene and polymer:non-fullerene blends and has dual functions of morphology modification and complementary spectral absorption.
Citation
Jagadamma , L K , Taylor , R G D , Kanibolotsky , A L , Sajjad , M T , Wright , I A , Horton , P N , Coles , S J , Samuel , I D W & Skabara , P J 2019 , ' Highly efficient fullerene and non-fullerene based ternary organic solar cells incorporating a new tetrathiocin-cored semiconductor ' , Sustainable Energy & Fuels , vol. 3 , no. 8 , pp. 2087-2099 . https://doi.org/10.1039/c9se00343f
Publication
Sustainable Energy & Fuels
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2398-4902Type
Journal article
Description
Authors thank the EPSRC for funding under grants EP/L012200/1 and EP/L012294/1.Collections
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