Two compatible non-fullerene acceptors towards efficient ternary organic photovoltaics

The composition of organic active layers plays significant role in determining the photovoltaic performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). Ternary strategy has shown promising advantages in fabrication for highly efficient OSCs due to its simple process and various donor and acceptor materials. Herein, a famous small molecule acceptor (ITIC) was employed as an assistant acceptor to make efficient ternary organic solar cells (TOSCs). The use of ITIC shows good compatibility and leads to the formation of alloyed state with the host acceptor (BTP-eC9). The middle bandgap of ITIC is also complementary with those of the host active materials (BTP-eC9 and PM6), which will be beneficial for the light-harvesting and thus enhance the photocurrent for OSC devices. Furthermore, the introduction of ITIC can fine-tune the film morphology with continuous nanofiber interpenetrating network, which is great for more balanced charge carrier transport and efficiently suppressed charge recombination. Consequently, a prominent power-conversion-efficiency (PCE) was achieved up to 18.25% with all-around enhancement photovoltaic parameters for the PM6:BTP-eC9:ITIC-based TOSCs.