Reduced Nonradiative Energy Loss Caused by Aggregation of Nonfullerene Acceptor in Organic Solar Cells

Reducing energy loss (E_loss) is of critical importance to improving the photovoltaic performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). Although nonradiative recombination ( $E_{\mathrm{loss}}^{\mathrm{nonrad}}$) is investigated in quite a few works, the method for modulating $E_{\mathrm{loss}}^{\mathrm{nonrad}}$ is seldom reported. Here, a new method of depressing E_loss is reported for nonfullerene OSCs. In addition to ternary‐blend bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells, it is proved that a small molecular material (NRM‐1) can be selectively dispersed into the acceptor phase in the PBDB‐T:IT‐4F‐based OSC, resulting in lower $E_{\mathrm{loss}}^{\mathrm{rad}}$ and $E_{\mathrm{loss}}^{\mathrm{nonrad}}$, and hence a significant improvement in the open‐circuit voltage (V_OC); under an optimal feed ratio of NRM‐1, an enhanced power conversion efficiency can also be gained. Moreover, the role of NRM‐1 in the method is illustrated and its applicability for several other representative OSCs is validated. This work paves a new pathway to reduce the E_loss for nonfullerene OSCs.