Truxene-Centered Electron Acceptors for Non-Fullerene Solar Cells: Alkyl Chain and Branched Arm Engineering

Kaiwen Lin; Wenhao Du; Shuqi Shen; Haoshen Liang; Xiaobin Zhang; Manjun Xiao; Yuehui Wang

doi:10.3390/ijms231810402

Truxene-Centered Electron Acceptors for Non-Fullerene Solar Cells: Alkyl Chain and Branched Arm Engineering

Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Sep 8;23(18):10402. doi: 10.3390/ijms231810402.

Authors

Kaiwen Lin^{1

2}, Wenhao Du¹, Shuqi Shen¹, Haoshen Liang¹, Xiaobin Zhang¹, Manjun Xiao³, Yuehui Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials and Food, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Zhongshan Institute, Zhongshan 528402, China.
² School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
³ Key Lab of Environment-Friendly Chemistry and Application (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China.

Abstract

A series of symmetrical truxene-centered and 3-ethylrhodanine end-capped electron acceptors with high absorption coefficient, namely Tr(Hex)₆-3RD, Tr(Dec)₆-3RD, and Tr(Hex)₆-6RD, were prepared and constructed for non-fullerene solar cells. To satisfy solution-processability, multiple energy levels, and suitable morphology, these three acceptors were comparatively studied through alkyl chain (hexyl/decyl) and branched-arm engineering (three/six branched arms). The six-bladed propeller acceptor of Tr(Hex)₆-6RD recorded the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.1% blending with PTB7-Th without additional additives and post-processing. This work highly broadens the potential applications of star-shaped truxene building blocks in the fields of organic electronics.

Keywords: 3-ethylrhodanine; electron acceptors; non-fullerene solar cells; star-shaped; truxene.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Innovation Team of Colleges and Universities in Guangdong Province (2020KCXTD030), Special Projects in Key Areas for the Universities of Guangdong Province (2020ZDZX2027, 2021ZDZX1009), Zhongshan Science and Technology Public Project (2020B2027), PhD early development program of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Zhongshan Institute (419YKQN07), Technological Expertise and Academic Leaders Training Program of Jiangxi Province (20194BCJ22013), Jiangxi Provincial Double Thousand Talents Plan-Youth Program (JXSQ2019201108), and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (20202ACB214001).