Search

Efficient cathode interfacial layers (CILs) are becoming essential elements for organic solar cells (OSCs). However, the absorption of commonly used cathode interfacial materials (CIMs) is either too weak or overlaps too much with that of photoactive materials, hindering their contribution to the light absorption. In this work, we demonstrate the construction of highly efficient CIMs based on 2,7-di-tert-butyl-4,5,9,10-pyrene diimide (t-PyDI) framework. By introducing amino, amino N-oxide and quaternary ammonium bromide as functional groups, three novel self-doped CIMs named t-PyDIN, t-PyDINO and t-PyDINBr are synthesized. These CIMs are capable of boosting the device performances by broadening the absorption, forming ohmic contact at the interface of active layer and electrode, as well as facilitating electron collection. Notably, the device based on t-PyDIN achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.25 %, which is among the top efficiencies reported to date in binary OSCs., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Two novel nitrogen-doped, hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC)-based nanographenes (NGs) 1 and 2 bearing an azepine and an azocine at the fjord region, respectively, were synthesized and characterized. Notably, structure 1 was synthesized by Diels-Alder reaction of cyclic alkene and tetrachlorothiophene-S,S-dioxide, followed by Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling and Scholl-type reactions, which represents a modified strategy to construct NGs. The azo-heptagon-embedded NG 1 leads to a saddle shape, and the azo-octagon-embedded NG 2 exhibits a distorted saddle-helix conformation with the largest torsion angle recorded so far in [5]helicenes. As a result, the different structural topographies for NGs 1 and 2 lead to significant changes in the optical properties including UV absorption and fluorescent emission. Additionally, the 8π-heterocycles azepine and azocine in the NGs 1 and 2 exhibited obvious antiaromatic properties., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)