An electron acceptor challenging fullerenes for efficient polymer solar cells

Abstract

A novel non-fullerene electron acceptor (ITIC) that overcomes some of the shortcomings of fullerene acceptors, for example, weak absorption in the visible spectral region and limited energy-level variability, is designed and synthesized. Fullerene-free polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on the ITIC acceptor are demonstrated to exhibit power conversion efficiencies of up to 6.8%, a record for fullerene-free PSCs.

Keywords: fullerene-free polymer solar cells; fused ring-based acceptors; non-fullerene acceptors; polymer solar cells.