Open-shell Donors and Closed-shell Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

The active materials of organic solar cells are widely recognized to show closed-shell singlet ground state and their electron spin resonance signals are attributed to the defects and impurities. Herein, we disclose the inherent open-shell singlet ground state of donors and the closed-shell structure of acceptors via the combination of variable temperature NMR, electron spin resonance, superconducting quantum interference device and theoretical calculation, providing a new perspective to understand the intrinsic molecular structure in organic solar cells.