Random terpolymer based on thiophenethiazolothiazole unit enabling efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells

Jingnan Wu1, Guangwei Li1, Jin Fang1, Xia Guo1 , Lei Zhu 2, Bing Guo1, Yulong Wang1, Guangye Zhang 3, Lingeswaran Arunagiri 4, Feng Liu 2, He Yan4, *, Maojie Zhang 1, *（张茂杰） Yongfang Li1,5

1Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, 215123 Suzhou, China.

2Department of Physics and Astronomy and Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA (CICIFSA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, China.

3eFlexPV Limited, Flat/RM B, 12/F, Hang Seng Causeway Bay BLDG, 28 Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, China.

4Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration Reconstruction, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.

5Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190 Beijing, China.

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS，(2020) 11:4612

Developing a high-performance donor polymer is critical for achieving efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs). Currently, most high-efficiency OSCs are based on a donor polymer named PM6, unfortunately, whose performance is highly sensitive to its molecular weight and thus has significant batch-to-batch variations. Here we report a donor polymer (named PM1) based on a random ternary polymerization strategy that enables highly efficient non-fullerene OSCs with efficiencies reaching 17.6%. Importantly, the PM1 polymer exhibits excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility. By including 20% of a weak electron-withdrawing thiophene-thiazolothiazole (TTz) into the PM6 polymer backbone, the resulting polymer (PM1) can maintain the positive effects (such as downshifted energy level and reduced miscibility) while minimize the negative ones (including reduced temperature-dependent aggregation property). With higher performance and greater synthesis reproducibility, the PM1 polymer has the promise to become the work-horse material for the non-fullerene OSC community.

链接：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18378-9