Halogenated Boron Subphthalocyanines as Light Harvesting Electron Acceptors in Organic Photovoltaics

By tuning the frontier orbital energies through selective halogenation of the periphery of the organic framework, new light harvesting electron acceptors based on boron subphthalocyanine chloride (SubPc) have been made. Planar heterojunction organic photovoltaics made using a Cl6-SubPc acceptor deliver an exceptionally high open-circuit voltage (∼1.3 V), good power conversion efficiency (∼2.7%) and improved operational stability in comparison to similar devices made using C60 as the acceptor material.