Impact of Alkoxy Side Chains on the Quinoxaline-Based Electron Acceptors for Efficient Organic Solar Cells

In this work, three alkoxy-substituted quinoxaline core-based small-molecule acceptors (BQO-F, BQDO-F, and BQDO-Cl) are developed to elucidate the impact of ethoxy substituents on the physicochemical and photoelectric properties. Comparative analysis reveals that dialkoxy-substituted BQDO-F has a more planar molecular skeleton, a red-shifted absorption spectrum, upshifted energy levels, stronger crystallinity, and reduced energetic disorder compared to the monoalkoxy-substituted BQO-F. Although the replacement of fluorine atoms with chlorine atoms on the end-capped units of BQDO-F leads to a bathochromically shifted absorption spectrum, the resulting molecule BQDO-Cl shows worse π-π packing order compared to BQDO-F. Benefiting from the more favorable active layer morphology and improved carrier dynamics, the PBDB-T:BQDO-F-based organic solar cell achieves a much higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.41% compared to that of 14.48% obtained in the BQO-F-based device. In comparison with the BQDO-F-based device, the higher voltage loss of the BQDO-Cl-based device results in a lower PCE of 15.89%. The results clarify the effects of ethoxy substituents and end-capped substitutions of quinoxaline core-based small-molecule acceptors on efficient organic solar cells.