Theoretical design of azaacene-based non-fullerene electron transport material used in inverted perovskite solar cells

Inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted much attention due to their low-temperature and solution-based process. Electron transport layers are important components in inverted PSCs. Non-fullerene n-type organic small molecules seem to be more attractive as electron transport layers, because their structures are easy to be synthesised and modified. In this paper, density functional theory and semi-classical Marcus electron transfer theory were used to explore the electron transport properties in three azaacene derivatives, including one experimentally reported molecule, 1,4,9,16-tetrakis((triisopropylsilyl)ethynyl)quinoxalino[2^‴,3^‴:4^″,5^″]cyclopenta[1^″,2^″,3^″:5^′,6^′]acenaphtho[1^′,2^′:5,6]pyrazino[2,3-b]phenazine (1), and two theoretically designed molecules (2 and 3). Compound 2 is formed by substituting i-Pr groups in compound 1 with H atoms, which is designed to evaluate the effect of i-Pr groups on the electron transport properties. Compound 3 is designed by adding one more benzopyrazine group to the conjugation structure of compound 1. It shows that i-Pr group can increase HOMO and LUMO energy levels and improve solubility in organic solvent and hydrophobicity. Enlarging conjugation can not only decrease LUMO energy level and electron reorganisation energy, but also can increase solubility and electron mobility. So our designed compound 3 is expected to be a potential electron transport material in inverted PSCs.