High Performance Electron Acceptors Containing Transition Metals

A novel molecular platform characteristic of multiple transition metals (CH─Zn, CH─Ni, CH─Pt) on conjugated backbones is first established as high-performance electron acceptors. The CH─Pt-based ternary organic photovoltaics render an excellent power conversion efficiency surpassing 20%, more importantly, the unexplored dependency of central metals on intrinsic physicochemical properties of acceptors, nanoscale morphologies of donor/acceptor blends and final photovoltaic outcomes is fully disclosed. By demonstrating such a rare case of metal-containing acceptor, our work provides insight into whether metal complexes can serve as the building blocks of high-performance acceptors and gives guidance to rational design of metal-containing acceptors.