Design and Synthesis of a Low Bandgap Small Molecule Acceptor for Efficient Polymer Solar Cells

A novel non-fullerene acceptor, possessing a very low bandgap of 1.34 eV and a high-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level of -3.95 eV, is designed and synthesized by introducing electron-donating alkoxy groups to the backbone of a conjugated small molecule. Impressive power conversion efficiencies of 8.4% and 10.7% are obtained for fabricated single and tandem polymer solar cells.