A molecular nematic liquid crystalline material for high-performance organic photovoltaics

Solution-processed organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) hold great promise to enable roll-to-roll printing of environmentally friendly, mechanically flexible and cost-effective photovoltaic devices. Nevertheless, many high-performing systems show best power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) with a thin active layer (thickness is ~100 nm) that is difficult to translate to roll-to-roll processing with high reproducibility. Here we report a new molecular donor, benzodithiophene terthiophene rhodanine (BTR), which exhibits good processability, nematic liquid crystalline behaviour and excellent optoelectronic properties. A maximum PCE of 9.3% is achieved under AM 1.5G solar irradiation, with fill factor reaching 77%,…

• AC
  Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics
• CS
  Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
• AS
  Australian Synchrotron
• NU
  National University of Singapore
• MO
  Ministry of Education - Singapore

  Award: R-284-000-113-112
• MU
  Monash University
• SG
  State Government of Victoria
• AR
  Australian Renewable Energy Agency

  Award: 2-A018
• DO
  Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering