Facile Approach to Perylenemonoimide with Short Side Chains for Nonfullerene Solar Cells.

Electron acceptors based on perylene monoimide (PMI) are rare due to the synthetic challenge. Herein, starting from commercially available perylene dianhydride, brominated perylene monoimide (PMI-Br) with short side chains and good solubility was efficiently synthesized in a high overall yield of 71%. With PMI-Br as the intermediate, acceptor-donor-acceptor type electron acceptors with low-lying LUMO energy levels and strong visible absorption were successfully obtained. The nonfullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells based on these acceptors were fabricated with the highest PCE of 1.3%.