Hole Transfer Originating from Weakly Bound Exciton Dissociation in Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells (vol 10, pg 227100, 2019)

The underlying hole-transfer mechanism in high-efficiency OSC bulk heterojunctions based on acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) remains unclear. Herein, we study the hole-transfer process between copolymer donor J91 and five A-D-A NFAs with different highest occupied molecular orbital energy offsets (Delta E-H) (0.05-0.42 eV) via ultrafast optical spectroscopies. Transient absorption spectra reveal a rapid hole-transfer rate with small Delta E-H, suggesting that a large energy offset is not required to overcome the exciton binding energy. Capacitance-frequency spectra and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra confirm the delocalization of an A-D-A-structured acceptor exciton with weak binding energy. Relative to the hole-transfer rate, hole-transfer efficiency is the key factor affecting device performance. We propose that holes primarily stem from weakly bound acceptor exciton dissociation, revealing a new insight into the hole-transfer process in A-D-A NFA-based OSCs.