The Halogenation Effects of Electron Acceptor ITIC for Organic Photovoltaic Nano-Heterojunctions

Molecular engineering plays a critical role in the development of electron donor and acceptor materials for improving power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics (OPVs). The halogenated acceptor materials in OPVs have shown high PCE. Here, to investigate the halogenation mechanism and the effects on OPV performances, based on the density functional theory calculations with the optimally tuned screened range-separated hybrid functional and the consideration of solid polarization effects, we addressed the halogenation effects of acceptor ITIC, which were modeled by bis-substituted ITIC with halogen and coded as IT-2X (X = F, Cl, Br), and PBDB-T:ITIC, PBDB-T:IT-2X (X = F, Cl, Br) complexes on their geometries, electronic structures, excitations, electrostatic potentials, and the rate constants of charge transfer, exciton dissociation (ED), and charge recombination processes at the heterojunction interface. The results indicated that halogenation of ITIC slightly affects molecular geometric structures, energy levels, optical absorption spectra, exciton binding energies, and excitation properties. However, the halogenation of ITIC significantly enlarges the electrostatic potential difference between the electron acceptor and donor PBDB-T with the order from fluorination and chlorination to bromination. The halogenation also increases the transferred charges of CT states for the complexes. Meanwhile, the halogenation effects on CT energies and electron process rates depend on different haloid elements. No matter which kinds of haloid elements were introduced in the halogenation of acceptors, the ED is always efficient in these OPV devices. This work provides an understanding of the halogenation mechanism, and is also conducive to the designing of novel materials with the aid of the halogenation strategy.