Effects of Alkyl Terminal Chains on Morphology, Charge Generation, Transport, and Recombination Mechanisms in Solution-Processed Small Molecule Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells (original) (raw)

The research investigates how alkyl terminal chains in small molecule organic solar cells (OSCs) influence material properties, charge generation, transport, and recombination mechanisms. Two compounds, DTS(Oct)2-(2T-DCV-Me)2 with methyl terminal chains and DTS(Oct)2-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 with hexyl terminal chains, were compared, revealing the former's superior power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.30% due to favorable morphology and charge transport characteristics. In contrast, the hexyl chain variant exhibited a significant decrease in performance (PCE of 1.25%) attributed to poor morphology, reduced charge carrier mobilities, and increased recombination losses.