Single-Component Organic Solar Cells Based on Intramolecular Charge Transfer Photoabsorption

Conjugated donor–acceptor molecules with intramolecular charge transfer absorption are employed for single-component organic solar cells. Among the five types of donor–acceptor molecules, the strong push–pull structure of DTDCPB resulted in solar cells with high J(SC), an internal quantum efficiency exceeding 20%, and high V(OC) exceeding 1 V with little photon energy loss around 0.7 eV. The exciton binding energy (EBE), which is a key factor in enhancing the photocurrent in the single-component device, was determined by quantum chemical calculation. The relationship between the photoexcited state and the device performance suggests that the strong internal charge transfer is effective for reducing the EBE. Furthermore, molecular packing in the film is shown to influence photogeneration in the film bulk.