Efficient organic solar cells with helical perylene diimide electron acceptors

J Am Chem Soc. 2014 Oct 29;136(43):15215-21. doi: 10.1021/ja5092613. Epub 2014 Oct 14.

Abstract

We report an efficiency of 6.1% for a solution-processed non-fullerene solar cell using a helical perylene diimide (PDI) dimer as the electron acceptor. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy revealed both electron and hole transfer processes at the donor-acceptor interfaces, indicating that charge carriers are created from photogenerated excitons in both the electron donor and acceptor phases. Light-intensity-dependent current-voltage measurements suggested different recombination rates under short-circuit and open-circuit conditions.