New Design and Synthesis of Donor-Acceptor units by Introducing Boron Based to Non-Boron based Semiconductor for high Voc OPV

A new A-D-A type (Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor) conjugated based on pyridine-borane complex (Donor), non-boron fluorine (Donor) and 2,5-bis(alkyl)-3,6-di(thiophen-2-yl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4(2H,5H)-dione (DPP) (Acceptor) were designed and synthesized via Pd-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. The synthesized boron based complex exhibited high electron affinity, which indicates deep HOMO energy levels and good visible absorption led to their use as donors in BHJ (bulk heterojunction) solar cells. Inverted devices were fabricated, reaching open-circuit voltage as high as 0.91eV. To probe structure-property relationship and search for design principle, we have synthesized pyridine-boron based electron donating small molecules. In this study, we report a new synthetic approach, molecular structure, charge carrier mobility and morphology of blended film and their correlation with the photovoltaic J-V characteristics in details.