19.28% Efficiency and Stable Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Introducing an NIR-Absorbing Guest Acceptor

Here, a near-infrared (NIR)-absorbing small-molecule acceptor (SMA) Y-SeNF with strong intermolecular interaction and crystallinity is developed by combining selenophene-fused core with naphthalene-containing end-group, and then as a custom-tailor guest acceptor is incorporated into the binary PM6:L8-BO host system. Y-SeNF shows a 65 nm red-shifted absorption compared to L8-BO. Thanks to the strong crystallinity and intermolecular interaction of Y-SeNF, the morphology of PM6:L8-BO:Y-SeNF can be precisely regulated by introducing Y-SeNF, achieving improved charge-transporting and suppressed non-radiative energy loss. Consequently, ternary polymer solar cells (PSCs) offer an impressive device efficiency of 19.28% with both high photovoltage (0.873 V) and photocurrent (27.88 mA cm⁻²), which is one of the highest efficiencies in reported single-junction PSCs. Notably, ternary PSC has excellent stability under maximum-power-point tracking for even over 200 h, which is better than its parental binary devices. The study provides a novel strategy to construct NIR-absorbing SMA for efficient and stable PSCs toward practical applications.