High-Performance All-Polymer Solar Cells Achieved by Fused Perylenediimide-Based Conjugated Polymer Acceptors

We report three n-type polymeric electron acceptors (PFPDI-TT, PFPDI-T, and PFPDI-Se) based on the fused perylene diimide (FPDI) and thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, thiophene, or selenophene units for all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). These FPDI-based polymer acceptors exhibit strong absorption between 350 and 650 nm with wide optical bandgap of 1.86–1.91 eV, showing good absorption compensation with the narrow bandgap polymer donor. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels were located at around −4.11 eV, which are comparable with those of the fullerene derivatives and other small molecular electron acceptors. The conventional all-PSCs based on the three polymer acceptors and PTB7-Th as polymer donor gave remarkable power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of >6%, and the PFPDI-Se-based all-PSC achieved the highest PCE of 6.58% with a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 13.96 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.76 V, and a fill factor (FF) of 62.0%. More interestingly, our results indicate that the photovoltaic performances of the FPDI-based polymer acceptors are mainly determined by the FPDI unit with a small effect from the comonomers, which is quite different from the others reported rylenediimide-based polymer acceptors. This intriguing phenomenon is speculated as the huge geometry configuration of the FPDI unit, which minimizes the effect of the comonomer. These results highlight a promising future for the application of the FPDI-based polymer acceptors in the highly efficient all-PSCs.