Photovoltaic Response and Mechanical Properties of Stretchable Solar Cells

Recently, the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of rigid organic solar cells (OSCs) and all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) and have surpassed 19% and 18%, respectively, principally reflecting the introduction of (polymerized) small molecule acceptors. Here we report the synthesis of new acceptor semiconductors having fully conjugated and partially nonconjugated cores/backbones as well properly designed sidechains enabling both high efficiency ultra-high stretchability. Thus, all blend films were characterized by morphological, microstructural, and spectroscopic techniques and tensile experiments indicates that our blends can achieve ultimate strains surpassing 60%. Equally important, devices based on these blends achieve power conversion efficiencies > 16%, corroborating the molecular design of the new acceptors. Overall, these results convey important implications for developing future ductile and stretchable electronics.