Regulating Intermolecular Interactions through Phenyl-alkyl Side-chain Engineering for High-efficiency Organic Solar Cells

Yang Yi; Shen-Bo Zhu; Ming-Hao Jin; Jia-Yin Lyu; Zhi-Bo Wang; Rui-Han Li; Xiao-Nan Xu; Xue-Chen Jiao; Hua-Wei Hu

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3810-7

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Regulating Intermolecular Interactions through Phenyl-alkyl Side-chain Engineering for High-efficiency Organic Solar Cells

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-08-27

- Regulating Intermolecular Interactions through Phenyl-alkyl Side-chain Engineering for High-efficiency Organic Solar Cells
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 44, Pages: 1-9(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
  b.National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230029, China
- Author bio：
  
  huaweihu@dhu.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3810-7
  CLC：
- Received：29 May 2026，
  
  Accepted：09 July 2026，
  
  Online First：27 August 2026，
  
  Published：2026-08
- Accepted：
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Yi, Y.; Zhu, S. B.; Jin, M. H.; Lyu, J. Y.; Wang, Z. B.; Li, R. H.; Xu, X. N.; Jiao, X. C.; Hu, H. W. Regulating intermolecular interactions through phenyl-alkyl side-chain engineering for high-efficiency organic solar cells. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3810-7

Yang Yi, Shen-Bo Zhu, Ming-Hao Jin, et al. Regulating Intermolecular Interactions through Phenyl-alkyl Side-chain Engineering for High-efficiency Organic Solar Cells[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-9.
Yi, Y.; Zhu, S. B.; Jin, M. H.; Lyu, J. Y.; Wang, Z. B.; Li, R. H.; Xu, X. N.; Jiao, X. C.; Hu, H. W. Regulating intermolecular interactions through phenyl-alkyl side-chain engineering for high-efficiency organic solar cells. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3810-7 DOI：

Yang Yi, Shen-Bo Zhu, Ming-Hao Jin, et al. Regulating Intermolecular Interactions through Phenyl-alkyl Side-chain Engineering for High-efficiency Organic Solar Cells[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-9. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3810-7.

摘要

Abstract

Regulating donor–acceptor (D/A) and acceptor–acceptor (A/A) interactions is crucial for optimizing the morphology and charge dynamics of organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein

a tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-containing Y-series acceptor

TPE-HD

was developed through phenyl-alkyl side-chain engineering to manipulate the intermolecular interactions and crystallization behavior. The introduced TPE unit enhanced A/A self-aggregation and molecular ordering

leading to increased crystallinity and accelerated crystallization kinetics during film formation. The binary D18:TPE-HD blend exhibited pronounced aggregation characteristics and delivered a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.5%. To further exploit the favorable packing characteristics of TPE-HD

it was incorporated as a third component into the D18:L8-BO host system. Benefiting from the synergistic effects of the efficient exciton dissociation provided by L8-BO and the enhanced electron transport induced by TPE-HD

the ternary blend exhibited optimized phase separation

improved charge transport

and suppressed recombination. Consequently

the ternary OSC achieved a PCE of 19.8% with simultaneous improvements in the short-circuit current density

fill factor

and open-circuit voltage. This work demonstrates an effective strategy for regulating intermolecular interactions through phenyl–alkyl side-chain engineering to synergistically optimize the morphology and charge dynamics of high-performance OSCs.

关键词

Keywords

references

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