Importance of structural hinderance in performance–stability equilibrium of organic photovoltaics

Power conversion efficiency and long-term stability are two critical metrics for evaluating the commercial potential of organic photovoltaics. Although the field has witnessed a rapid progress of efficiency towards 19%, the intrinsic trade-off between efficiency and stability is still a challenging issue for bulk-heterojunction cells due to the very delicate crystallization dynamics of organic species. Herein, we developed a class of non-fullerene acceptors with varied side groups as an alternative to aliphatic chains. Among them, the acceptors with conjugated side groups show larger side-group torsion and more twisted backbone, however, they can deliver an efficiency as high as 18.3% in xylene-processed cells, which is among the highest values reported for non-halogenated solvent processed cells. Meanwhile, decent thermal/photo stability is realized for these acceptors containing conjugated side groups. Through the investigation of the geometry–performance–stability relationship, we highlight the importance of side-group steric hinderance of acceptors in achieving combined high-performance, stable, and eco-friendly organic photovoltaics.