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Designing and theoretical study of fluorinated small molecule donor materials for organic solar cells

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Abstract

A recently synthesized photoactive donor named fluorinated thienyl–substituted benzodithiophene (DRTB-FT), modified with four novel end capped acceptor molecules, has been investigated through different electrical, quantum, and spectrochemical techniques for its enhanced electro-optical and photovoltaic properties. DRTB-FT was connected to 2-methylenemalononitrile (D-1), 2-methylene-3-oxobutanenitrile (D-2), 2-(2-methylene-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene) malononitrile (D-3), and 3-methyl-5methylene-2-thioxothiazolidin-4-one (D-4) as terminal acceptor moieties. The architectural D-1 and D-3 molecules owe reduced optical band gap of 2.45 and 2.28 eV benefited from A-D-A configuration and have broaden maximum absorption band (λmax) at 617 and 602 nm in polar organic solvent (chloroform). Reduced optical band gap sets the ease for enhanced absorption. Reorganization energy of electron (λe) of D-3 molecule (0.00397 eV) was smaller among all which disclosed its greater mobility of conducting electrons (ICT). Larger values of dipole moment (μ) of D-1 (5.939 Debye) and D-3 (3.661 Debye) molecules in comparison to R indicated greater solubilities of the targeted molecules. Among the tailored molecules, D-3 showed the lowest binding energy of 0.25 eV in solvent phase and 0.08 eV in gaseous phase. The voltaic strength of the designed molecules was examined with respect to fullerene derivative (PC61BM) which exposed that D-1 is the best choice for achieving higher PCE. TDM (transition density matrix), DOS (density of states) analysis, and binding energies all were estimated at MPW1PW91/6-31G (d, p) level of DFT (density functional theory).

Graphical abstract

All the architecture molecules show reduced band gap and high electron transfer rate due to the lowest reorganization energy (RE) of electron. The results show that there is greater contribution of acceptor and conjugated donor core towards the total absorption into the visible region of the spectrum. When tailored molecules D-1, D-2, D-3, and D-4 were blended with fullerene derivative polymer (PC61BM), they give high values of voltage at zero current level (Voc) compared to R.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial and technical support from Punjab Bio-energy Institute (PBI), University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan.

Funding

Funding acquisition from Punjab Bio-energy Institute (PBI), University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Usama Mubashar, Afifa Farhat, Rasheed Ahmad Khera, Rabia Saleem & Javed Iqbal

  2. US Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Naseem Iqbal

  3. Punjab Bio-energy Institute, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Javed Iqbal

Authors
  1. Usama Mubashar
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  2. Afifa Farhat
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  3. Rasheed Ahmad Khera
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  4. Naseem Iqbal
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  5. Rabia Saleem
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  6. Javed Iqbal
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Contributions

Usama Mubashar: writing original draft; Afifa Farhat: formal analysis; Rasheed Ahmad Khera: data curation; Rasheed Ahmad Khera: funding acquisition; Naseem Iqbal: formal analysis, data curation; Rabi Saleem: data curation; Javed Iqbal: funding acquisition, formal analysis, data curation.

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Correspondence to Rasheed Ahmad Khera or Javed Iqbal.

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Supplementary information

ESM 1

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Supporting information (SI-1) include Cartesian coordinates of internally optimized geometries of all molecules (reference R, and architecture molecules D-1, D-2, D-3, and D-4 along X-, Y-, and Z-axis at MPW1PW91/6-31G (d, p) level of density functional theory (DFT).

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Mubashar, U., Farhat, A., Khera, R.A. et al. Designing and theoretical study of fluorinated small molecule donor materials for organic solar cells. J Mol Model 27, 216 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00894-021-04831-z

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