Wide-bandgap organic solar cells with a novel perylene-based non-fullerene acceptor enabling open-circuit voltages beyond 1.4 V

A perylene-based acceptor (PMI-FF-PMI), consisting of two perylene monoimide (PMI) units bridged with a dihydroindeno[1,2-b]fluorene molecule was developed as a potential non-fullerene acceptor (NFA) for organic solar cells (OSCs). The synthesized NFA was combined with the high-performance donor polymer D18 to fabricate efficient OSCs. With an effective bandgap of 2.02 eV, the D18:PMI-FF-PMI blend can be categorized as a wide-bandgap OSC and is an attractive candidate for application as a wide-bandgap sub-cell in all-organic triple-junction solar cell devices. Owing to their large effective bandgap, D18:PMI-FF-PMI solar cells are characterized by an extremely high open-circuit voltage (V-OC) of 1.41 V, which to the best of our knowledge is the highest reported value for solution-processed OSCs so far. Despite the exceptionally high V-OC of this blend, a comparatively large non-radiative voltage loss (Delta V-OC(non-rad)) of 0.25 V was derived from a detailed voltage loss analysis. Measurements of the electroluminescence quantum yield (ELQY) of the solar cell reveal high ELQY values of similar to 0.1%, which contradicts the ELQY values derived from the non-radiative voltage loss (Delta V-OC(non-rad) = 0.25 V, ELQY = 0.0063%). This work should help to raise awareness that (especially for BHJ blends with small Delta(HOMO) or Delta(LUMO) offsets) the measured ELQY cannot be straightforwardly used to calculate the Delta V-OC(non-rad) . To avoid any misinterpretation of the non-radiative voltage losses, the presented ELQY discrepancies for the D18:PMI-FF-PMI system should encourage OPV researchers to primarily rely on the Delta V-OC(non-rad) values derived from the presented voltage loss analysis based on EQE(PV) and J-V measurements.

Automated summary

A perylene-based acceptor was developed for organic solar cells, showing high open-circuit voltage and significant non-radiative voltage losses. However, measurements of electroluminescence quantum yield contradict the voltage loss analysis results, suggesting caution in interpreting non-radiative voltage losses in OPV systems.