Renewed Prospects for Organic Photovoltaics

Zhang G, Lin FR, Qi F, Heumüller T, Distler A, Egelhaaf HJ, Li N, Chow PCY, Brabec C, Jen AKY, Yip HL (2022)

Publication Type: Journal article, Review article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00955

Abstract

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have progressed steadily through three stages of photoactive materials development: (i) use of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and fullerene-based acceptors (FAs) for optimizing bulk heterojunctions; (ii) development of new donors to better match with FAs; (iii) development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). The development and application of NFAs with an A-D-A configuration (where A = acceptor and D = donor) has enabled devices to have efficient charge generation and small energy losses (Eloss < 0.6 eV), resulting in substantially higher power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) than FA-based devices. The discovery of Y6-type acceptors (Y6 = 2,2'-((2Z,2'Z)-((12,13-bis (2-ethylhexyl)-3,9-diundecyl-12,13-dihydro-[1,2,5]-thiadiazolo [3,4-e]-thieno- [2 ",3 ":4',5']thieno-[2',3':4,5]pyrrolo-[3,2-g]thieno-[2',3':4,5]thieno-[3,2-b]indole-2,10- diyl)bis(methanylylidene))bis(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indene-2,1-diylidene))-dimalononitrile) with an A-DA' D-A configuration has further propelled the PCEs to go beyond 15% due to smaller Eloss values (& SIM;0.5 eV) and higher external quantum efficiencies. Subsequently, the PCEs of Y6-series single-junction devices have increased to > 19% and may soon approach 20%. This review provides an update of recent progress of OPV in the following aspects: developments of novel NFAs and donors, understanding of the structure-property relationships and underlying mechanisms of state-of-the-art OPVs, and tasks underpinning the commercialization of OPVs, such as device stability, module development, potential applications, and high-throughput manufacturing. Finally, an outlook and prospects section summarizes the remaining challenges for the further development of OPV technology.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

South China University of Technology (SCUT) / 华南理工大学 China (CN) City University of Hong Kong (CityU) China (CN) University of Hong Kong (HKU) / 香港大學 Hong Kong (HK)

How to cite

APA:

Zhang, G., Lin, F.R., Qi, F., Heumüller, T., Distler, A., Egelhaaf, H.-J.,... Yip, H.-L. (2022). Renewed Prospects for Organic Photovoltaics. Chemical Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00955

MLA:

Zhang, Guichuan, et al. "Renewed Prospects for Organic Photovoltaics." Chemical Reviews (2022).

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