@article{64670883ab1249cc9c73545b9265f6e7,
title = "Non-fullerene acceptor photostability and its impact on organic solar cell lifetime",
abstract = "The development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) has facilitated the realization of efficient organic solar cells (OSCs) with minimal burn-in losses and excellent long-term stability. However, the role of NFA molecular structures on device stability remains unclear, limiting commercialization of NFA-based OSCs. Herein, the photostability of 10 OSC devices, fabricated with various NFAs (O-IDTBR, EH-IDTBR, ITIC, and ITIC-M) blended with donor polymers (PTB7-Th, PffBT4T-2OD, and PBDB-T), is investigated. O-IDTBR and EH-IDTBR form highly stable devices with all three polymers, whereas ITIC and ITIC-M devices suffer from burn-in losses and long-term degradation. Conformational instability is found to be responsible for the poor photostability of ITIC and ITIC-M, resulting in poor device stability. Twisting and potential breakage of the chemical bond that links the end group to the main backbone of ITIC and ITIC-M molecules causes undesirable conformational changes. Potential strategies to overcome such detrimental photo-induced conformational changes in NFAs are proposed.",
author = "Clarke, {Andrew J.} and Joel Luke and Rico Meitzner and Jiaying Wu and Yuming Wang and Lee, {Harrison K.H.} and Speller, {Emily M.} and Helen Bristow and Hyojung Cha and Newman, {Michael J.} and Katherine Hooper and Alex Evans and Feng Gao and Harald Hoppe and Iain McCulloch and Schubert, {Ulrich S.} and Watson, {Trystan M.} and Durrant, {James R.} and Tsoi, {Wing C.} and Ji-Seon Kim and Zhe Li",
note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-07-14 Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): OSR-2018-CRG/CCF-3079, OSR-2018-CRG7-3749, OSR-2019-CRG8-4086 Acknowledgements: The authors thank all sources of funding that made this work possible. A.J.C. and W.C.T. acknowledge funding from the European Social Fund via the Welsh Government and EPSRC project EP/L015099/1. J.L. and J.-S.K. thank UK EPSRC for the Plastic Electronics Centre for Doctoral Training (EP/L016702/1) and ATIP Programme grant (EP/T028513/1) and CSEM Brasil for a CASE studentship. This research was also supported by the Global Research Laboratory Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2017K1A1A2013153). E.M.S. thanks the National Research Network in Advanced Engineering and Materials. J.R.D. and J.W. thank the UKRI Global Challenge Research Fund project, SUNRISE (EP/P032591/1). H.B. and I.M. acknowledge financial support from KAUST, including Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) awards OSR-2018-CRG/CCF-3079, OSR-2019-CRG8-4086, and OSR-2018-CRG7-3749, and funding from European Social Fund, European Union CSEM Brasil, Brazil European Research Council, European Union ERC Synergy Grant SC2 (610115), the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 952911, project BOOSTER and grant agreement 862474, project RoLA-FLEX, and EPSRC project EP/T026219/1. Z.L. acknowledges EPSRC project EP/S020748/1.",
year = "2021",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100498",
language = "English (US)",
pages = "100498",
journal = "Cell Reports Physical Science",
issn = "2666-3864",
publisher = "Cell Press",
}