

FOLLOWUS
a.School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710054, China
b.State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
c.Xi’an Key Laboratory of Liquid Crystal and Organic Photovoltaic Materials, Xi’an Modern Chemistry Research Institute, Xi’an 710065, China
d.School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
e.College of Materials and Energy, Guang’an Institute of Technology, Guang’an 638000, China
f.College of Polymer Science and Engineering, National Key Laboratory of Advanced Polymer Materials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
lihongxiang@scu.edu.cn (H.X.L.)
qunping@xjtu.edu.cn (Q.P.F.)
Received:04 February 2026,
Accepted:04 April 2026,
Online First:01 July 2026,
Published:05 September 2026
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Su, W. Y.; Su, H. Y.; Zhou, X. M.; Xiang, K.; Dong, C. Y.; Li, T. F.; Liu, S. J.; Sun, T.; Qin, H. M.; Bai, H. R.; Li, Y. X.; Ding, Z. C.; Gao, C.; Li, H. X.; Fan, Q. P. End-group and side-chain dual-engineering of selenium-fused acceptors for 20.08% efficiency polymer solar cells with low energy loss. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2943–2952
Wen-Yan Su, Hao-Yu Su, Xu-Min Zhou, et al. End-group and Side-chain Dual-engineering of Selenium-fused Acceptors for 20.08% Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells with Low Energy Loss[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(9): 2943-2952.
Su, W. Y.; Su, H. Y.; Zhou, X. M.; Xiang, K.; Dong, C. Y.; Li, T. F.; Liu, S. J.; Sun, T.; Qin, H. M.; Bai, H. R.; Li, Y. X.; Ding, Z. C.; Gao, C.; Li, H. X.; Fan, Q. P. End-group and side-chain dual-engineering of selenium-fused acceptors for 20.08% efficiency polymer solar cells with low energy loss. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2943–2952 DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3704-8.
Wen-Yan Su, Hao-Yu Su, Xu-Min Zhou, et al. End-group and Side-chain Dual-engineering of Selenium-fused Acceptors for 20.08% Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells with Low Energy Loss[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(9): 2943-2952. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-026-3704-8.
Four selenium-fused NIR-absorbing acceptors were developed by tailoring the molecular photoelectric properties
via
end-group and side-chain dual engineering. Among them
Y-SeNF-2ClO with linear side chains and asymmetric end groups showed favorable molecular packing and energy levels
which optimized the active layer morphology and suppressed energy loss
achieving a high device efficiency of 20.08%.
Although near-infrared (NIR)-absorbing acceptors tend to capture more photons to boost the photocurrent (
J
SC
) of polymer solar cells (PSCs)
they often suffer from significant energy loss (
E
loss
)
resulting in a low photovoltage (
V
OC
)
which limits further improvement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE). Herein
we developed four selenium-fused NIR-absorbing acceptors (Y-SeNF
Y-SeNF-2ClO
Y-SeBNF
and Y-SeBNF-2ClO) by regulating the molecular photoelectric properties
via
end-group and side-chain dual-engineering. Among them
Y-SeNF-2ClO with linear side-chains and asymmetric end-groups showed favorable molecular packing and energy leve
ls
achieving an optimized active layer morphology and suppressed energy loss. Therefore
among the binary PSCs with a polymer donor D18
the Y-SeNF-2ClO device achieved the minimized
E
loss
and the highest product of
V
OC
×
J
SC
leading to a champion PCE of 17.41%
outperforming other devices based on acceptors with branched side-chains and/or symmetric end-groups. Encouraged by the above success
NIR-absorbing Y-SeNF-2ClO was also introduced into the classic D18:L8-BO host system to fabricate efficient ternary PSCs. Notably
the D18:L8-BO:Y-SeNF-2ClO device offered a further improved PCE of 20.08%
ranking among the highest values reported for asymmetric acceptors. This work provides a feasible molecular design strategy for end-group and side-chain dual-engineering to develop NIR-absorbing acceptors for constructing efficient PSCs.
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