A novel small molecule, FBR, bearing 3-ethylrhodanine flanking groups was synthesized as a nonfullerene electron acceptor for solution-processed bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics (OPV). A straightforward synthesis route was employed, offering the potential for large scale preparation of this material. Inverted OPV devices employing poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as the donor polymer and FBR as the acceptor gave power conversion efficiencies (PCE) up to 4.1%. Transient and steady state optical spectroscopies indicated efficient, ultrafast charge generation and efficient photocurrent generation from both donor and acceptor. Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy was used to investigate polaron generation efficiency as well as recombination dynamics. It was determined that the P3HT:FBR blend is highly intermixed, leading to increased charge generation relative to comparative devices with P3HT:PC60BM, but also faster recombination due to a nonideal morphology in which, in contrast to P3HT:PC60BM devices, the acceptor does not aggregate enough to create appropriate percolation pathways that prevent fast nongeminate recombination. Despite this nonoptimal morphology the P3HT:FBR devices exhibit better performance than P3HT:PC60BM devices, used as control, demonstrating that this acceptor shows great promise for further optimization.

Previous phosphorescence and triplet quantum yield determinations indicate that the primary photophysical channel for 1-nitronaphthalene is the formation of its lowest energy triplet state. Also, previous direct measurements of the decay of the fluorescence from this compound indicated that the crossing between the singlet and triplet manifolds is ultrafast (sub-100 fs). In this contribution we present a sub-picosecond transient absorption study of the relaxation of photoexcited 1-nitronaphthalene in methanol and other solvents. Our measurements reveal the time scale in which the fully relaxed T(1) state is formed. We have observed that the spectral evolution associated with this process takes place in time scales from one to a few tens of picoseconds. Specifically, the appearance of the absorption spectrum of T(1) in the visible region is accompanied by the decay of transient signals at wavelengths below 400 nm. Since the fluorescence lifetime of this compound is sub-100 fs, we assigned the picoseconds decaying signals below 400 nm to an intermediate triplet state which acts as a receiver state in the intersystem crossing step and from which the T(1) population accumulates. From the details of the spectral evolution and the effects of different solvents, we also conclude that T(1) formation and vibrational cooling within this state occur in similar time scales of between 1 and 16 ps. Mainly, our results provide direct evidence in support of the participation of an upper triplet state in the mechanism for intersystem crossing in this molecule. This is considered to be common in the photophysics of several nitrated polycyclic aromatic compounds and the most determinant feature of their primary photochemistry.

Although the late (t>1 ps) photoisomerization steps in Schiff bases have been described in good detail, some aspects of the ultrafast (sub-100 fs) proton transfer process, including the possible existence of an energy barrier, still require experimental assessment. In this contribution we present femtosecond fluorescence up-conversion studies to characterize the excited state enol to cis-keto tautomerization through measurements of the transient molecular emission. Salicylideneaniline and salicylidene-1-naphthylamine were examined in acetonitrile solutions. We have resolved sub-100 fs and sub-0.5 ps emission components which are attributed to the decay of the locally excited enol form and to vibrationally excited states as they transit to the relaxed cis-keto species in the first electronically excited state. From the early spectral evolution, the lack of a deuterium isotope effect, and the kinetics measured with different amounts of excess vibrational energy, it is concluded that the intramolecular proton transfer in the S1 surface occurs as a barrierless process where the initial wave packet evolves in a repulsive potential toward the cis-keto form in a time scale of about 50 fs. The absence of an energy barrier suggests the participation of normal modes which modulate the donor to acceptor distance, thus reducing the potential energy during the intramolecular proton transfer.

Organic semiconductors including conjugated polymers and fullerenes continue to demonstrate promising potential for application in low-cost, printable solar cells. Power conversion efficiencies are now approaching 10 %, and major attention is increasingly turning towards identifying and overcoming the degradation mechanisms that limit the device lifetime. Recent advances in the performance of organic photovoltaics have largely arisen through the development of novel molecular structures using a donor-acceptor copolymer motif. Copolymers incorporating diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) units have attracted strong widespread interest, but the main role of this unit in the optoelectronic properties and device performance is not yet clear. This work investigates the natures of the main optical absorption transitions of DPP-based copolymers and chal-lenges the assumption that the DPP-unit behaves as a traditional acceptor unit. This insight leads to a clearer understanding of the excitation energy dependent photodegradation mechanism of the materials, providing ways to improve the operational stability of DPP-based solar cells. ABSTRACTDonor-acceptor copolymers are an important class of conjugated polymer on account of their chemically tunable energy levels and ambipolar charge transport properties. These materials typically exhibit two strong absorption bands in the UV-visible range, whose natures have previously been explored using theoretical analyses. In this work, we experimentally elucidate the electronic origins of these transitions and consider their effects on photostability using resonant Raman spectroscopy and transient absorption spectroscopy. In particular, we identify two dominant electronic transitions for a material comprising diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) acceptor and selenophene donor units: a strong transition at low energy (520-1150 nm) that is localised within the DPP unit, and a much weaker transition at higher energy (320-520 nm) that is delocalised along the conjugated backbone of both the DPP and selenophene units. The polymer is found to have good photostability under prolonged excitation in the low energy absorption band, but is much less stable to higher energy excitation. In this latter case, the selenophene ring is identified as the photodegradation site. These effects are correlated with ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy results, which associate the photodegradation with a higher yield of polaron pairs arising from excitation of the higher energy transition. Our findings provide insight into the design of photostable low energy gap conjugated copolymers for application in organic photovoltaic devices and demonstrate a specific vulnerability of the selenophene donor unit.

The involvement of charge-transfer (CT) states in the photogeneration and recombination of charge carriers has been an important focus of study within the organic photovoltaic community. In this work, we investigate the molecular factors determining the mechanism of photocurrent generation in low-donor-content organic solar cells, where the active layer is composed of vacuum-deposited C 60 and small amounts of organic donor molecules. We find a pronounced decline of all photovoltaic parameters with decreasing CT state energy. Using a combination of steady-state photocurrent measurements and time-delayed collection field experiments, we demonstrate that the power conversion efficiency, and more specifically, the fill factor of these devices, is mainly determined by the bias dependence of photocurrent generation. By combining these findings with the results from ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy, we show that blends with small CT energies perform poorly because of an increased nonradiative CT state decay rate and that this decay obeys an energy-gap law. Our work challenges the common view that a large energy offset at the heterojunction and/or the presence of fullerene clusters guarantee efficient CT dissociation and rather indicates that charge generation benefits from high CT state energies through a slower decay to the ground state.