Efficiency-limiting processes in OPV bulk heterojunctions of GeNIDTBT and IDT-based acceptors

The successful realization of highly efficient bulk heterojunction OPV devices requires the development of organic donor and acceptor materials with tailored properties. Recently, non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) have emerged as an alternative to the ubiquitously used fullerene derivatives. NFAs showed a rapid increase in efficiencies, now exceeding a PCE of 13%. In my thesis research, I used two small molecule IDT-based acceptors, namely O-IDTBR and O-IDTBCN, in combination with a wide bandgap donor polymer, GeNIDT-BT, as active material in BHJ solar cells and investigated their photophysical characteristics. The polymer combined with O-IDTBR as acceptor achieved a power conversion efficiency of only 2%, which is significantly lower than that obtained for the system of GeNIDT-BT: O-IDTBCN (5.3%). Using nano- to microsecond transient absorption spectroscopy, I investigated both systems and demonstrated that GeNIDT-BT:O-IDTBR exhibits more geminate recombination of interfacial charge-transfer states, leading to lower short circuit currents. Using time-delayed collection field experiments, I studied the field dependence of charge generation and its impact on the device fill factor. Overall, my results provide a qualitative understanding of the efficiency-limiting processes in both systems and their impact on device performance.