An H ‐Aggregation Mediator Enhances Photoluminescence Quantum Yield and Crystallinity for Efficient Nonannealed Organic Solar Cells
ABSTRACT Organic solar cells (OSCs) hold promise for building‐integrated and wearable photovoltaics, yet excessive H ‐aggregation of non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs) quenches luminescence and lowers the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), limiting further efficiency gains. Here, we introduce NTCl‐4F, a molecular H ‐aggregation mediator, into the D18:L8‐BO‐C 4 binary system. Designed with an identical backbone to L8‐BO‐C 4 but featuring a rotatable central core that induces steric hindrance (dihedral angle of 4.87° as revealed by single‐crystal diffraction), NTCl‐4F effectively suppresses H ‐aggregation while promoting ordered J ‐aggregation (with average fibril diameters from 20.75 to 17.16 nm). This aggregation‐mode modulation enhances the PLQY from 6.13% to 7.52%. Furthermore, the ordered J ‐aggregation induced by NTCl‐4F enhances the crystallinity of the system with increased crystal coherence lengths (CCL) and decreased fractal dimension ( D f ), achieving synchronous improvement of short‐circuit current. Consequently, the NTCl‐4F‐modified device achieves a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.8% under non‐annealed conditions, which stands among the highest reported efficiencies for non‐annealed OSCs. The strategy proves general, yielding efficiency improvements in PM6:Y6 and D18:Y7 systems. This work establishes aggregation‐mode engineering via an H ‐aggregation mediator as a versatile route to enhance PLQY and crystallinity for high‐performance OSCs.
Authors
- Hanjian Lai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8696-8757)
- Guangye Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2750-7720)
- Zhenghui Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3503-828X)
- He Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1780-8308)
- Xinhui Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1908-3294)
- Yanming Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7839-3199)
- Yufei Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1960-3413)
- Sha Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5496-5858)
- Jun Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5842-7424)
- Chang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2553-3017)
- Zhenye Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9478-9230)
- Xingjie Mi
- Haoran Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4080-6887)
- Huanyan Jiang
- Guoli Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0318-8905)
- Xianyong Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9867-7997)
- Yuang Fu
- Rujin Zhou
- Chao Li
Institutions
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
- Dongguan University of Technology (CN)
- Centre of Excellence for Advanced Materials (CN)
- Shenzhen Technology University (CN)
- Beihang University (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- University of South China (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2026-10-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.9805519
- Primary Topic
- Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00