Nonhalogenated-Solvent-Processed Efficient Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Medium-Band-Gap A−π–D−π–A Small-Molecule Acceptors Based on a 6,12-Dihydro-diindolo[1,2-b:10,20-e]pyrazine Unit

In this contribution, a series of A−π–D−π–A small molecules (SMs), IPY-T-IC, IPY-T-ICCl, and IPY-T-ICF, containing the central donor unit (D) of 6,12-dihydro-diindolo[1,2-b:10,20-e]pyrazine (IPY), the π-conjugated bridge of thiophene, and the end-accepting group (A) of 3-(dic yanomethylidene)indol-1-one, 5,6-dichloro-3-(dicyanomethylidene)indol-1-one, or 5,6-difluoro-3-(dicyanomethylene)indol-1-one, were developed, characterized, and employed as the acceptor materials for polymer solar cells (PSCs). Influences of the different end-accepting groups on thermal properties, spectral absorption, energy levels, photovoltaic performance, and film morphology of these small-molecule acceptors (SMAs) were investigated in detail. These SMAs exhibit an excellent thermal stability and strong crystallization. The absorption spectra of these SMs mainly locate the wavelength between 400 and 700 nm, associated with the optical band gaps in the range of 1.75–1.90 eV. Compared with nonhalogenated IPY-T-IC, the halogenated SMAs IPY-T-ICCl and IPY-T-ICF present better absorption abilities, wider absorption region, and downshifted highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels. With regard to the complementary spectral absorption and matched HOMO/LUMO levels, PTB7-Th as a low-band gap polymer was chosen to be an electron donor to pair with these SMAs for fabricating bulk-heterojuntion PSCs. Under optimized conditions, among these SMAs, the PTB7-Th:IPY-T-IC-based PSC processed from a halogenated solvent system (chlorobenzene + 1-chloronaphthalene) delivers the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.32%, mainly because of more complementary spectral absorption, upper-lying LUMO level, higher and balanced carrier mobility, more efficiently suppressed trap-assisted recombination, better charge collection property, and blend morphology. Encouragingly, an improved PCE of up to 7.68% is achieved when the IPY-T-IC-based solar cell was processed from a nonhalogenated solvent system (o-xylene + 2-methylnaphthalene). In view of the large band gap of these IPY-based SMAs, the PCE of over 7.5% is notable and attractive for the related community. Our study argues that the IPY moiety is a potential electron-donating building moiety to develop medium-band-gap high-performance A−π–D−π–A SMAs for nonhalogenated-solvent-processed photovoltaic devices.