Non-fullerene acceptor with low energy loss and high external quantum efficiency: towards high performance polymer solar cells

A non-fullerene electron acceptor bearing a fused 10-heterocyclic ring (indacenodithiophenoindacenodithiophene) with a narrow band gap (similar to 1.5 eV) was designed and synthesized. It possesses excellent planarity and enhanced effective conjugation length compared to previously reported fused-ring electron acceptors. When this acceptor was paired with PTB7-Th and applied in polymer solar cells, a power conversion efficiency of 6.5% was achieved with a high open circuit voltage of 0.94 V. More significantly, an energy loss as low as 0.59 eV and an external quantum efficiency as high as 63% were obtained simultaneously.