Structure engineering of small molecules for organic solar cells

Abstract

Two 1,3-bis(thiophen-2-yl)?5,7-bis(2-ehtylhexyl)benzo-[1,2-c:4,5-c]-dithiophene-4,8-dione (BDD) based small molecules, SM1 and SM2 are designed and synthesized by incorporating benzodithiophene (BDT) central core, BDD dual accepting units and 3-ethyl rhodamine as endcap group with various number of BDT units. We systematically investigated the synthesis, optical and electrochemical properties, and photovoltaic characteristics of these donor materials. The number of BDT units have a significant influence on Jsc due to interconnected structure and results in a broader absorption on thin film. The inverted devices employed for both small molecules exhibited power conversion efficiencies of 0.41% for SM1 and 0.82% for SM2.