Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (10): 100280.doi: 10.1016/j.actphy.2026.100280

Special Issue: Solar Energy Conversion and Storage

• ARTICLE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Solvatochromic Ti-oxo clusters as cathode interlayer for efficient organic solar cells

Chaowei Zhao1,2,3,4, Ting Li1,2, Dongdong Xia2, Qian Xie2, Jie Fang2, Yuefeng Zhang2,*(), Yu Xie1,*(), Alex K.-Y. Jen3,4,5,*()   

  1. 1 College of Environment and Chemical Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063, Jiangxi Province, China
    2 Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Environment and Energy Catalysis, Institute of Energy Research, Jiangxi Academy of Sciences, Nanchang 330096, Jiangxi Province, China
    3 Hong Kong Institute for Clean Energy, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
    4 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
    5 Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
  • Received:2025-09-22 Revised:2026-03-04 Accepted:2026-03-05 Published:2026-09-03
  • Contact: Email: zhangyuefeng1987@126.com (Yuefeng Zhang)xieyu_121@163.com (Yu Xie)alexjen@cityu.edu.hk (Alex K.-Y. Jen)

Abstract:

Three isostructural Ti6-oxo clusters with the formular of Ti6O4(PhPO3)2(L)2(OiPr)10, where L is 2-dimethylamine benzoate for Ti6-1, 3-dimethylamine benzoate for Ti6-2, and 4-dimethylamine benzoate for Ti6-3, were successfully synthesized and characterized. Thereinto, Ti6-3 displayed novel solvent dependent light absorption property. When dissolved in trifluoroethanol related solvent, evident visible light absorption was observed for Ti6-3, which was quite different from its absorption limited within the ultraviolate region in isopropanol related solvent. However, Ti6-1 and Ti6-2 displayed consistent absorption behavior in both of these solvents, respectively. It is worth noting that the solvent dependent absorption property remains quite rare for Ti-oxo cluster materials to date, although this has been commonly observed for organic conjugated materials. Nuclear magnetic resonance measurements revealed that the surface isopropoxide ligands on Ti6-3 were replaced by analogus trifluoroethoxide ligands on the cluster surface, resulting in Ti6-3-F. The solvatochromic effect was further illustrated by density functional theory calculation revealing the tuned energy levels between Ti6-3 and Ti6-3-F. Finally, Ti6-3-F was demonstrated able to serve as excellent cathode interlayer (CIL) in PM6:BO-4Cl and PM6:L8-BO based organic solar cells (OSCs), which achieved high efficiencies of 17.89% and 18.09%, respectively, suggesting its excellence as new CIL materials for high performance OSCs.

Key words: Ti-oxo cluster, Sensitization, Frontier energy level, Cathode interlayer, Organic solar cells