Balancing Solubility and Efficiency by BDF–FBTz Polymer Donors for Realizing 20% Non‐Halogenated‐Solvent‐Processed Organic Solar Cells

ABSTRACT Organic solar cells (OSCs) are promising next‐generation photovoltaic technologies, but their practical deployment is limited by polymer donors (PDs) that lack both high efficiency and compatibility with non‐halogenated solvents. Herein, we present a molecular design strategy that alleviates the trade‐off between performance and solubility by weakening polarizability and enhancing dipole moments to better match Hansen solubility parameters (HSPs). Guided by this concept, we design benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]difuran–difluorobenzo[d]thiazole (BDF–FBTz)‐based PDs, namely PBFuT‐F and PBFuT‐Cl, which show optical bandgaps and energy levels complementary to Y‐series non‐fullerene acceptors. PBFuT‐Cl exhibits optimized aggregation, a lower HOMO level, and good face‐on stacking. The PBFuT‐Cl:L8‐BO blends display excellent processability in non‐halogenated solvents (toluene, o ‐xylene, tetrahydrofuran, and dihydropyran), affording power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 19.49%, 19.25%, 19.17% and 17.59%, respectively. Moreover, the ternary blend OSCs based on PBFuT‐Cl:L8‐BO:BTP‐eC9 processed from toluene achieve a PCE of 20.30%, which is the highest value so far for BDF‐based PDs. The results demonstrate that BDF–FBTz copolymers can balance solubility and efficiency while broadening the non‐halogenated‐solvent processing window for OSCs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-05-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.75930
Primary Topic
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Balancing Solubility and Efficiency by BDF–FBTz Polymer Donors for Realizing 20% Non‐Halogenated‐Solvent‐Processed Organic Solar Cells

Chentong Liao, H Wang, Zhaolong Liu, Min Deng et al.
Advanced Functional Materials
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
article

Balancing Solubility and Efficiency by BDF–FBTz Polymer Donors for Realizing 20% Non‐Halogenated‐Solvent‐Processed Organic Solar Cells

Chentong Liao, H Wang, Zhaolong Liu, Min Deng, Chunhong Zhou, Qiang Peng, Xiaopeng Xu, Xinxin Xia
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Organic solar cells (OSCs) are promising next‐generation photovoltaic technologies, but their practical deployment is limited by polymer donors (PDs) that lack both high efficiency and compatibility with non‐halogenated solvents. Herein, we present a molecular design strategy that alleviates the trade‐off between performance and solubility by weakening polarizability and enhancing dipole moments to better match Hansen solubility parameters (HSPs). Guided by this concept, we design benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]difuran–difluorobenzo[d]thiazole (BDF–FBTz)‐based PDs, namely PBFuT‐F and PBFuT‐Cl, which show optical bandgaps and energy levels complementary to Y‐series non‐fullerene acceptors. PBFuT‐Cl exhibits optimized aggregation, a lower HOMO level, and good face‐on stacking. The PBFuT‐Cl:L8‐BO blends display excellent processability in non‐halogenated solvents (toluene, o ‐xylene, tetrahydrofuran, and dihydropyran), affording power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 19.49%, 19.25%, 19.17% and 17.59%, respectively. Moreover, the ternary blend OSCs based on PBFuT‐Cl:L8‐BO:BTP‐eC9 processed from toluene achieve a PCE of 20.30%, which is the highest value so far for BDF‐based PDs. The results demonstrate that BDF–FBTz copolymers can balance solubility and efficiency while broadening the non‐halogenated‐solvent processing window for OSCs.

Advanced Functional Materials
Shandong University (CN), Chengdu University of Information Technology (CN), Chengdu University of Technology (CN), Ingenierie des Materiaux polymeres (FR)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
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