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Selenium substitution for dielectric constant improvement and hole-transfer acceleration in non-fullerene organic solar cells

Author

Listed:
  • Xinjun He

    (The University of Hong Kong)

  • Feng Qi

    (City University of Hong Kong
    City University of Hong Kong
    Qingdao University)

  • Xinhui Zou

    (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

  • Yanxun Li

    (City University of Hong Kong
    City University of Hong Kong
    City University of Hong Kong)

  • Heng Liu

    (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Xinhui Lu

    (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • Kam Sing Wong

    (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

  • Alex K.-Y. Jen

    (City University of Hong Kong
    City University of Hong Kong
    City University of Hong Kong
    University of Washington)

  • Wallace C. H. Choy

    (The University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

Dielectric constant of non-fullerene acceptors plays a critical role in organic solar cells in terms of exciton dissociation and charge recombination. Current acceptors feature a dielectric constant of 3-4, correlating to relatively high recombination loss. We demonstrate that selenium substitution on acceptor central core can effectively modify molecule dielectric constant. The corresponding blend film presents faster hole-transfer of ~5 ps compared to the sulfur-based derivative (~10 ps). However, the blends with Se-acceptor also show faster charge recombination after 100 ps upon optical pumping, which is explained by the relatively disordered stacking of the Se-acceptor. Encouragingly, dispersing the Se-acceptor in an optimized organic solar cell system can interrupt the disordered aggregation while still retain high dielectric constant. With the improved dielectric constant and optimized fibril morphology, the ternary device exhibits an obvious reduction of non-radiative recombination to 0.221 eV and high efficiency of 19.0%. This work unveils heteroatom-substitution induced dielectric constant improvement, and the associated exciton dynamics and morphology manipulation, which finally contributes to better material/device design and improved device performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Xinjun He & Feng Qi & Xinhui Zou & Yanxun Li & Heng Liu & Xinhui Lu & Kam Sing Wong & Alex K.-Y. Jen & Wallace C. H. Choy, 2024. "Selenium substitution for dielectric constant improvement and hole-transfer acceleration in non-fullerene organic solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-46352-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46352-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Jianxiao Wang & Cheng Sun & Yonghai Li & Fuzhen Bi & Huanxiang Jiang & Chunming Yang & Xichang Bao & Junhao Chu, 2025. "Polymer-like tetramer acceptor enables stable and 19.75% efficiency binary organic solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Baozhong Deng & Yi Li & Zhouyi Lu & Kaiwen Zheng & Tao Xu & Shenghao Wang & Xiaoshu Luo & Bruno Grandidier & Jianhua Zhang & Furong Zhu, 2025. "The art and science of translucent color organic solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.

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