Elucidating Charge Generation in Green-Solvent Processed Organic Solar Cells

Organic solar cells have the potential to become the cheapest form of electricity. Rapid increase in the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) has been achieved with the development of non-fullerene small-molecule acceptors. Next generation photovoltaics based upon environmentally benign “green solvent” processing of organic semiconductors promise a step-change in the adaptability and versatility of solar technologies and promote sustainable development. However, high-performing OSCs are still processed by halogenated (non-environmentally friendly) solvents, so hindering their large-scale manufacture. In this perspective, we discuss the recent progress in developing highly efficient OSCs processed from eco-compatible solvents, and highlight research challenges that should be addressed for the future development of high power conversion efficiencies devices.

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Green Solvent-Processed, High-Performance Organic Solar Cells Achieved by Outer Side-Chain Selection of Selenophene-Incorporated Y-Series Acceptors

Journal of Materials Chemistry A ◽

10.1039/d1ta07046k ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Changkyun Kim ◽

Shuhao Chen ◽

Jin Su Park ◽

Geon-U Kim ◽

Hyunbum Kang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

High Performance ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Side Chain ◽

Outer Side ◽

Green Solvent ◽

Conversion Efficiencies ◽

Selection Of

While the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of organic solar cells (OSCs) have been dramatically increased through the development of small molecular acceptors (SMAs), achieving eco-friendly solution processability of OSCs is...

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Additive-induced Miscibility Regulation and Hierarchical Morphology Enables 17.5% Binary Organic Solar Cells

Energy & Environmental Science ◽

10.1039/d0ee04012f ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jie Lv ◽

Hua Tang ◽

Jiaming Huang ◽

Cenqi Yan ◽

Kuan Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Solar Cell ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

Organic Solar Cell ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Charge Trapping ◽

Free Charge ◽

Charge Generation ◽

Low Charge ◽

Hierarchical Morphology

Due to the barrierless free charge generation, low charge trapping, and high charge mobilities, the PM6:Y6 organic solar cell (OSC) achieves excellent power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.7%. However, the...

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Nonfullerene acceptors for P3HT-based organic solar cells

Journal of Materials Chemistry A ◽

10.1039/d1ta03219d ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shreyam Chatterjee ◽

Seihou JINNAI ◽

Yutaka Ie

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

High Power ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Conversion Efficiencies

Progressive advancement of remarkably high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of organic solar cells (OSCs) largely depends on the development of norfullerene acceptors (NFAs), revealing stupendous ability of OSCs to shift...

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Recent advances, challenges and prospects in ternary organic solar cells

Nanoscale ◽

10.1039/d0nr07788g ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Congcong Zhao ◽

Jiuxing Wang ◽

Xuanyi Zhao ◽

Zhonglin Du ◽

Renqiang Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

High Performance ◽

Power Conversion ◽

The Past ◽

Recent Advances ◽

Conversion Efficiencies

The past decade has seen a tremendous development of organic solar cells (OSCs). To date, the high-performance OSCs have boosted the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 17%, showing bright prospects...

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Organic and nano-structured composite photovoltaics: An overview

Journal of Materials Research ◽

10.1557/jmr.2005.0407 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 20 (12) ◽

pp. 3167-3179 ◽

Cited By ~ 152

Author(s):

Sophie E. Gledhill ◽

Brian Scott ◽

Brian A. Gregg

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Solar Cell ◽

Organic Semiconductors ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

Organic Materials ◽

Low Cost ◽

Open Circuit ◽

Charge Generation ◽

Dye Sensitized ◽

Excitonic Solar Cells

Organic photovoltaic devices are poised to fill the low-cost, low power niche in the solar cell market. Recently measured efficiencies of solid-state organic cells are nudging 5% while Grätzel’s more established dye-sensitized solar cell technology is more than double this. A fundamental understanding of the excitonic nature of organic materials is an essential backbone for device engineering. Bound electron-hole pairs, “excitons,” are formed in organic semiconductors on photo-absorption. In the organic solar cell, the exciton must diffuse to the donor–accepter interface for simultaneous charge generation and separation. This interface is critical as the concentration of charge carriers is high and recombination here is higher than in the bulk. Nanostructured engineering of the interface has been utilized to maximize organic materials properties, namely to compensate the poor exciton diffusion lengths and lower mobilities. Excitonic solar cells have different limitations on their open-circuit photo-voltages due to these high interfacial charge carrier concentrations, and their behavior cannot be interpreted as if they were conventional solar cells. This article briefly reviews some of the differences between excitonic organic solar cells and conventional inorganic solar cells and highlights some of the technical strategies used in this rapidly progressing field, whose ultimate aim is for organic solar cells to be a commercial reality.

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Copolymers based on trialkylsilylethynyl-phenyl substituted benzodithiophene building block for efficient organic solar cells

New Journal of Chemistry ◽

10.1039/d1nj03555j ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Haifen Liu ◽

Zixuan Zhu ◽

Huafeng Li ◽

Weili Fan ◽

Kaihua Ning ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

Building Block ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Molecular Structures ◽

The Past ◽

Conversion Efficiencies

Non-fullerene acceptors have received a great deal of attention over the past several years, and numerous modifications on the molecular structures significantly boosted the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). To be...

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Incorporating Semiflexible Linkers into Double-Cable Conjugated Polymers via Click Reaction

Polymer Chemistry ◽

10.1039/d1py01188j ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zhaofan Yang ◽

Shijie Liang ◽

Baiqiao Liu ◽

Jing Wang ◽

Fan Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Conjugated Polymers ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

Click Reaction ◽

Bulk Heterojunction ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Single Component ◽

Photovoltaic Technology ◽

Conversion Efficiencies ◽

Excellent Stability

Single-component organic solar cells (SCOSCs) have been recognized as the promising photovoltaic technology due to the excellent stability, but their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) are far lagging their bulk-heterojunction counterparts....

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Ternary organic solar cells: using molecular donor or acceptor third components to increase open circuit voltage

New Journal of Chemistry ◽

10.1039/c9nj01574d ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 43 (26) ◽

pp. 10442-10448 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Sergey V. Dayneko ◽

Arthur D. Hendsbee ◽

Jonathan R. Cann ◽

Clément Cabanetos ◽

Gregory C. Welch

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Organic Photovoltaics ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

Open Circuit Voltage ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Open Circuit ◽

Molecular Semiconductors ◽

Conversion Efficiencies ◽

Open Circuit Voltages

The addition of donor or acceptor type molecular semiconductors to PBDB-T:PC60BM based organic photovoltaics leads to increases in open circuit-voltages and overall power conversion efficiencies.

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High-Performance Ternary Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Combining Fullerene and Nonfullerene Electron Acceptors

Organic Materials ◽

10.1055/s-0039-1700848 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 01 (01) ◽

pp. 030-037 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jianyun Zhang ◽

Wenrui Liu ◽

Shengjie Xu ◽

Xiaozhang Zhu

Keyword(s):

Solar Cells ◽

Organic Solar Cells ◽

High Performance ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Wide Bandgap ◽

The Third ◽

Bimolecular Recombination ◽

Conversion Efficiencies ◽

Wide Bandgap Polymer ◽

Nonfullerene Acceptor

Recently, by elaborately designing nonfullerene acceptors and selecting suitable polymer donors great progresses have been made towards binary organic solar cells (OSCs) with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 15%. Ternary organic photovoltaics by introducing a third component into the host binary system is recognized to be highly effective to elevate the performance through extending the light absorption, manipulating the recombination behavior of the carriers, and improving the morphology of the active layer. In this work, we synthesized a new electron-acceptor ZITI-4F matching it with the wide-bandgap polymer donor PBDB-T The PBDB-T:ZITI-4F-based OSC showed a high PCE of 12.33%. After introducing 40% of PC71BM as the third component, the ternary device achieved an improved PCE of 13.40% with simultaneously improved photovoltaic parameters. The higher performance of the ternary device can be attributed to the improved and more balanced charge mobility, reduced bimolecular recombination, and more favorable morphology. These results indicate that the cooperation of a fullerene-based acceptor and a nonfullerene acceptor to fabricate ternary OSCs is an effective approach to optimizing morphology and therefore to increase the performance of OSCs.

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