Controlled‐Disorder Asymmetrical Donors Enable Efficient All‐Small‐Molecule Solar Cells with Excellent Solution‐Processability
All-small-molecule organic solar cells (all-SMOSCs) are promising candidates for next-generation photovoltaics owing to their well-defined molecular structures and excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility, yet their efficiency is limited by morphology control and processability. Here, we report three asymmetric small molecule donors-MPhS-HF, MPhS-OP, and MPhS-PF-engineered with distinct side-chain functionalities to systematically investigate the interplay between molecular design, solution-state interactions, crystallization kinetics, and blend morphology. Among them, MPhS-OP demonstrates delayed crystallization and favorable miscibility with the non-fullerene acceptor L8-BO, enabling the formation of finely interpenetrating network morphologies that facilitate efficient exciton dissociation, balanced charge transport, and suppressed recombination losses. As a result, binary MPhS-OP:L8-BO devices achieve a record power conversion efficiency of 18.12% under conventional spin-coating, along with exceptional processing tolerance, maintaining > 16.4% efficiency in thick-film, high-speed blade-coated, green solvent-processed, and large-area devices. In situ spectroscopy and thermodynamic modeling reveal that the superior performance arises from the distinct film-formation dynamics of MPhS-OP, which delays donor precipitation relative to L8-BO, suppressing premature phase segregation and ensuring reproducible nano-interpenetrating morphologies across processing conditions. This work establishes asymmetric small molecule donor design as a powerful strategy to couple molecular packing control with solution processability, offering a viable route toward scalable and high-performance all-SMOSCs.
Authors
- Biao Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2822-1898)
- Jie Min (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0447-3764)
- Xiaohei Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6472-8963)
- Yiming Shao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9137-913X)
- Bowen Chang
- Bo Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8933-8136)
- Linyong Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5130-2461)
- Rui Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1972-6541)
- Meimei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1913-3829)
- Xinrong Yang
- Yuan Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0037-7257)
- Zicheng Xing
Institutions
- Jianghan University (CN)
- Wuhan University (CN)
- Zero to Three (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-11-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202519713
- Primary Topic
- Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00