Nitration–Chlorination Synergy Enables 20% Efficiency and Long‐Term Stability in Q‐PHJ Organic Photovoltaics

ABSTRACT Achieving both high efficiency and long‐term stability in organic solar cells (OSCs), particularly those based on non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs) with emerging structures, remains a major challenge. Here, we propose a synergistic design strategy that combines nitration and chlorine‐mediated interactions to enhance the photovoltaic performance of quasi‐planar heterojunction (Q‐PHJ) OSCs. The nitrated NFAs, NO 2 Q‐2Cl and NO 2 Q‐2F, show blue‐shifted absorption compared to the benchmark molecule BTP‐eC9, along with improved molecular packing and crystallinity. In particular, the introduction of chlorine‐mediated strategy in NO 2 Q‐2Cl enables preferable miscibility with the donor D18. As a result, D18/NO 2 Q‐2Cl‐based devices achieve a record Q‐PHJ efficiency of 20.0%, outperforming all previously reported Q‐PHJ systems and ranking among the highest for nitrated or chlorinated NFAs to date. Moreover, these devices exhibit excellent photostability, retaining 80% of their initial efficiency ( T 80 lifetime) after 2982 h of continuous light exposure, far surpassing many of the latest systems. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of the combined strategy and offers valuable insights for advancing high‐performance OSCs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.75686
Primary Topic
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Nitration–Chlorination Synergy Enables 20% Efficiency and Long‐Term Stability in Q‐PHJ Organic Photovoltaics

Waqar Ali Memon, Xuechun Yang, Y Li, Yi Luo et al.
Advanced Functional Materials
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
article

Nitration–Chlorination Synergy Enables 20% Efficiency and Long‐Term Stability in Q‐PHJ Organic Photovoltaics

Waqar Ali Memon, Xuechun Yang, Y Li, Yi Luo, Hui Li, Y G Liu, Yue Wang, Feng He, Mingpeng Li, Zihao Deng, Yafei Ding, Guangye Zhang, Jiaying Wu, Shilong Xiong, Ying Qian, Hang Liu
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Achieving both high efficiency and long‐term stability in organic solar cells (OSCs), particularly those based on non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs) with emerging structures, remains a major challenge. Here, we propose a synergistic design strategy that combines nitration and chlorine‐mediated interactions to enhance the photovoltaic performance of quasi‐planar heterojunction (Q‐PHJ) OSCs. The nitrated NFAs, NO 2 Q‐2Cl and NO 2 Q‐2F, show blue‐shifted absorption compared to the benchmark molecule BTP‐eC9, along with improved molecular packing and crystallinity. In particular, the introduction of chlorine‐mediated strategy in NO 2 Q‐2Cl enables preferable miscibility with the donor D18. As a result, D18/NO 2 Q‐2Cl‐based devices achieve a record Q‐PHJ efficiency of 20.0%, outperforming all previously reported Q‐PHJ systems and ranking among the highest for nitrated or chlorinated NFAs to date. Moreover, these devices exhibit excellent photostability, retaining 80% of their initial efficiency ( T 80 lifetime) after 2982 h of continuous light exposure, far surpassing many of the latest systems. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of the combined strategy and offers valuable insights for advancing high‐performance OSCs.

Advanced Functional Materials
Nankai University (CN), Southern University of Science and Technology (CN), Shenzhen Technology University (CN), Nano and Advanced Materials Institute (CN), University of Hong Kong (HK)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Guangdong Science and Technology Department
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 10%
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
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