Side-Chain-Promoted Benzodithiophene-based Conjugated Polymers toward Striking Enhancement of Photovoltaic Properties for Polymer Solar Cells

In this work, we have reported a highly efficient photovoltaic material, PBDTTz-SBP, by fine-tuning the side chains of the benzodithiophene (BDT) unit. With the replacement of alkoxy chains with alkylthio chains, a large increase in power conversion efficiency (PCE) was realized. Non-fullerene polymer solar cells (PSCs) without any post-treatment generate an optimal PCE of up to 12.09%, with a high VOC of 0.914 V, JSC of 18.52 mA cm–2, and fill factor of 71.43%. Notably, the efficiency of a PBDTTz-SBP-based solar cell was about 1.31-fold of the PCE (9.20%) of its counterpart based on the polymer, PBDTTz-BP, with alkoxy chains, indicating the striking modulation effect of side-chain engineering. Although VOC and JSC were lower than those of non-fullerene devices, the PSCs with PC71BM as the acceptor exhibited a fairly high fill factor of up to 76.69%, affording a moderate PCE. Our work reported a highly efficient polymer solar cell with a PCE of 12.09% and clearly demonstrated the great tuning effect of alkylthio chains on photovoltaic performance.