We present a first-principles investigation of the excited-state properties of electron acceptors in organic photovoltaics including C, C, [6,6]-phenyl-C-butyric-acid-methyl-ester ([C]PCBM), and bis-[C]PCBM using many-body perturbation theory within the Hedin’s approximation and an efficient Lanczos approach. Calculated vertical ionization potentials (VIP) and vertical electron affinities (VEA) of C and C agree very well with experimental values measured in gas phase. The density of states of all three molecules is also compared to photoemission and inverse photoemission spectra measured on thin-films, exhibiting a close agreement - a rigid energy-gap renormalization owing to intermolecular interactions in the thin-films. In addition, it is shown that the low-lying unoccupied states of [C]PCBM are all derived from the highest-occupied molecular orbitals and the lowest-unoccupied molecular orbitals of fullerene C. The functional side group in [C]PCBM introduces a slight electron transfer to the fullerene cage, resulting in small decreases of both VIP and VEA. This small change of VEA provides a solid justification for the increase of open-circuit voltage when replacing fullerene C with [C]PCBM as the electron acceptor in bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells.

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