Chalcogen Atom Engineering of Conjugated Side Chains Enables Additive-free Organic Solar Cells with 20.58% Efficiency

Hong-Li Wang; Zhao-Long Liu; Xing-Jian Dai; Jia-Hao Zhang; Chen-Tong Liao; Xiao-Peng Xu; Yi-Hui Wu; Qiang Peng

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3789-0

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Chalcogen Atom Engineering of Conjugated Side Chains Enables Additive-free Organic Solar Cells with 20.58% Efficiency

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-09-29

- Chalcogen Atom Engineering of Conjugated Side Chains Enables Additive-free Organic Solar Cells with 20.58% Efficiency
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 44, Pages: 1-11(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.School of Chemical Engineering and State Key Laboratory of Advanced Polymer Materials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
  b.College of Materials and Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
- Author bio：
  
  xpxu@scu.edu.cn (X.P.X.)
  qiangpeng@scu.edu.cn (Q.P.)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3789-0
  CLC： [M
- Received：16 April 2026，
  
  Revised：2026-05-29，
  
  Accepted：17 June 2026，
  
  Online First：29 September 2026，
  
  Published：2026-08
- Accepted：
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Wang, H. L.; Liu, Z. L.; Dai, X. J.; Zhang, J. H.; Liao, C. T.; Xu, X. P.; Wu, Y. H.; Peng, Q. Chalcogen atom engineering of conjugated side chains enables additive-free organic solar cells with 20.58% efficiency. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3789-0

Hong-Li Wang, Zhao-Long Liu, Xing-Jian Dai, et al. Chalcogen Atom Engineering of Conjugated Side Chains Enables Additive-free Organic Solar Cells with 20.58% Efficiency[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-11.
Wang, H. L.; Liu, Z. L.; Dai, X. J.; Zhang, J. H.; Liao, C. T.; Xu, X. P.; Wu, Y. H.; Peng, Q. Chalcogen atom engineering of conjugated side chains enables additive-free organic solar cells with 20.58% efficiency. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3789-0 DOI：

Hong-Li Wang, Zhao-Long Liu, Xing-Jian Dai, et al. Chalcogen Atom Engineering of Conjugated Side Chains Enables Additive-free Organic Solar Cells with 20.58% Efficiency[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-11. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3789-0.

摘要

Abstract

Achieving optimal active-layer morphology in organic solar cells (OSCs) without volatile additives is critical for long-term operational stability. This study introduces a rational molecular design strategy utilizing chalcogen-engineered two-dimensional (2D) side chains to intrinsically regulate non-fullerene acceptor (NFA) packing. We synthesized three novel NFAs

BTP-OTh

BTP-STh

and BTP-SeTh

to systematically decode the impact of heteroatomic polarizability on device performance. The incorporation of highly polarizable selenium atoms in BTP-SeTh effectively enhances the local dielectric constant (

) and suppresses the exciton binding energy (

) through intensified dielectric screening. Consequently

deploying BTP-SeTh as a morphology-regulating ternary component in the D18/L8-BO system yields an exceptional power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.58%

via

an entirely additive-free fabrication process. This work establishes chalcogen-substituted 2D side chains as a robust molecular blueprint for developing high-performance

intrinsically stable

and additive-free organic photovoltaics.

关键词

Keywords

references

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