Effect of the Terminal Acceptor Unit on the Performance of Non-Fullerene Indacenodithiophene Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

Four acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A)-type molecules bearing indacenodithiophene as donating central core and various end-capping acceptor units have been designed and synthesised as n-type materials suitable for organic solar cells (OSCs). The studied optical and electrochemical properties supported by theoretical calculations revealed that the nature and the strength of the terminal groups exert a decisive influence on the polymer bulk-heterojunction OSC performance.