A non-fullerene electron acceptor based on central carbazole and terminal diketopyrrolopyrrole functionalities for efficient, reproducible and solution-processable bulk-heterojunction devices

A novel, solution-processable non-fullerene electron acceptor, 6,6′-((9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole-2,7-diyl)bis(thiophene-5,2-diyl))bis(2,5-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3-(thiophen-2-yl)-2,5-dihydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione) (coded as N7), based on central carbazole and terminal diketopyrrolopyrrole building blocks was designed, synthesized and characterized. N7 displayed excellent solubility, thanks to its design allowing incorporation of numerous lipophilic chains, thermal stability, and afforded a 2.30% power conversion efficiency with a high open-circuit voltage (1.17 V) when tested with the conventional donor polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) in solution-processable bulk-heterojunction devices. To our knowledge, not only is N7 the first reported chromophore based on carbazole and diketopyrrolopyrrole functionalities but the open-circuit voltage reported here is among the highest values for a single junction bulk-heterojunction device that has been fabricated using a simple device architecture, with reproducible outcomes and with no special treatment.