Polymer-Wrapped Chiral Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Enable 20% Efficiency Organic Solar Cells and Broadband Photodetectors

Abstract Obtaining a broadened optoelectronic response while maintaining a low photovoltage loss is a critical challenge for organic solar cells (OSCs). Infrared-responsive chiral single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) could address this, yet their application is hindered by complex purification and aggregation. Here, we disperse SWCNTs in a high-quantum-yield wide-gap polymer, F8BT, to create an F8BT@CNT(10,5) composite dopant. This dopant broadens the spectral response, promotes energy transfer, refines the phase morphology of donor–acceptor heterojunctions, and synergistically enhances charge transport while suppressing nonradiative and bimolecular recombination. The strategy is general, achieving a 20.10% PCE and a low nonradiative loss of 0.182 eV across various OSC systems. Beyond photovoltaics, it enables high-sensitivity organic photodetectors for precise, real-time heart rate monitoring. This work highlights the potential of polymer-wrapped chiral CNTs to improve organic optoelectronic devices for energy conversion and sensing.