Using Aromatic‐Bridge‐Tuned Dimer Acceptors to Harmonize Photoluminescence Quantum Yield and Crystallinity for Organic Solar Cells Exceeding 21% Efficiency

ABSTRACT Suppressing non‐radiative energy loss (Δ E 3 ) by enhancing the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of active‐layer materials, particularly the acceptor component, is important for achieving high‐performance organic solar cells (OSCs). A key challenge is how to design acceptor materials that attain high PLQY while preserving favorable crystallinity and aggregation behavior, as these properties are often mutually conflicting. Here, we address this challenge by developing a series of dimeric acceptors linked via benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene bridges (named Ph‐dimer, Naph‐dimer, and Ant‐dimer). Although the conjugation length and intrinsic emission of these cores increase from benzene to anthracene, the photovoltaic performance of the resulting dimeric acceptors shows no linear correlation with this trend. Among them, the Naph‐dimer optimally balances crystallinity and PLQY, with enhanced molecular packing and reduced disorder, suppressing energy loss ( E loss ) and facilitating charge extraction. Consequently, the PM6:Naph‐dimer OSC exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.90%, an open‐circuit voltage ( V oc ) of 0.974 V and a low Δ E 3 of 0.192 eV, outperforming PM6:Ph‐dimer and PM6:Ant‐dimer counterparts. Moreover, incorporating Naph‐dimer into a PM6:L8‐BO host yields a PCE of 21.02%. These findings indicate that precise bridge modulation is an effective strategy for harmonizing high PLQY with crystalline order in OSCs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie
Published
2026-10-07
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.4058890
Primary Topic
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
Type
article
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article

Using Aromatic‐Bridge‐Tuned Dimer Acceptors to Harmonize Photoluminescence Quantum Yield and Crystallinity for Organic Solar Cells Exceeding 21% Efficiency

Zheng Tang, Chunming Yang, Yun Li, Jun Wei Yan et al.
Angewandte Chemie
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
article

Using Aromatic‐Bridge‐Tuned Dimer Acceptors to Harmonize Photoluminescence Quantum Yield and Crystallinity for Organic Solar Cells Exceeding 21% Efficiency

Zheng Tang, Chunming Yang, Yun Li, Jun Wei Yan, Donghui Wei, Jiawei Deng, Yanming Sun, Xiaobo Sun, Jiali Song, Haisheng Ma, Jinye Chen, Liming Liu, Xuelin Wang, Hu Liu, Yue Chen, Mingshuai Zhou, Long Hai
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Suppressing non‐radiative energy loss (Δ E 3 ) by enhancing the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of active‐layer materials, particularly the acceptor component, is important for achieving high‐performance organic solar cells (OSCs). A key challenge is how to design acceptor materials that attain high PLQY while preserving favorable crystallinity and aggregation behavior, as these properties are often mutually conflicting. Here, we address this challenge by developing a series of dimeric acceptors linked via benzene, naphthalene, and anthracene bridges (named Ph‐dimer, Naph‐dimer, and Ant‐dimer). Although the conjugation length and intrinsic emission of these cores increase from benzene to anthracene, the photovoltaic performance of the resulting dimeric acceptors shows no linear correlation with this trend. Among them, the Naph‐dimer optimally balances crystallinity and PLQY, with enhanced molecular packing and reduced disorder, suppressing energy loss ( E loss ) and facilitating charge extraction. Consequently, the PM6:Naph‐dimer OSC exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.90%, an open‐circuit voltage ( V oc ) of 0.974 V and a low Δ E 3 of 0.192 eV, outperforming PM6:Ph‐dimer and PM6:Ant‐dimer counterparts. Moreover, incorporating Naph‐dimer into a PM6:L8‐BO host yields a PCE of 21.02%. These findings indicate that precise bridge modulation is an effective strategy for harmonizing high PLQY with crystalline order in OSCs.

Angewandte Chemie
Hangzhou Normal University (CN), Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (CN), Donghua University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Zhengzhou University (CN), Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN), Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CN), Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Beihang University (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 22%
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
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