TY - JOUR
T1 - Recent progress of all-polymer solar cells – From chemical structure and device physics to photovoltaic performance
AU - Yin, Hang
AU - Yan, Cenqi
AU - Hu, Hanlin
AU - Ho, Johnny Ka Wai
AU - Zhan, Xiaowei
AU - Li, Gang
AU - So, Shu Kong
N1 - Funding Information:
Support of this work by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong under Grant #NSFC/RGC N-HKBU 202/16 , and the Research Committee of HKBU under Grant #RC-ICRS/15-16/4A-SSK is gratefully acknowledged. G. Li thanks the support from Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project Nos 15218517, C5037-18G), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (Project No. JCYJ20170413154602102). Hang Yin is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Department of Physics, Hong Kong Baptist University. He received his Ph.D. degree supervised by Prof. Shu Kong So in Physics from Hong Kong Baptist University in 2017. His current research focuses on device physics and engineering of organic and perovskite solar cells. Cenqi Yan received her Ph.D. degree in Mechanics (Advanced Materials and Mechanics) from Peking University in 2018 under the supervision of Prof. Xiaowei Zhan. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her current research interests are high-performance organic solar cells and perovskite solar cells. Hanlin Hu received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in October 2017. Then, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Gang Li’s group in the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. Now, he is an associate researcher in the college of materials science and engineering at Shenzhen University. His research interests include synchrotron based crystallography characterization, printing thin film solar cells and transistors. Johnny K. W. HO is a PhD student in Physics under the supervision of Professor S. K. So at Hong Kong Baptist University. He will graduate with a doctoral degree in 2020. His research interests include electrical properties of organic semiconductors and organometallic hybrid perovskite materials as well as device physics of thin film transistors and organic photovoltaics. His current investigation focus is on indoor organic photovoltaics and perovskite transistors. Xiaowei Zhan obtained a PhD degree in chemistry from Zhejiang University in 1998. He was then a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) from 1998 to 2000, and in 2000 he was promoted to Associate Professor at ICCAS. Dr Zhan worked in the University of Arizona and the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2002 to 2006 as a Research Associate and a Research Scientist. He has been a full professor at ICCAS since 2006. In 2012 he moved to Peking University. His research interests are in the development of materials for organic electronics and photonics. Prof. Zhan is a Highly Cited Researcher since 2017 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Gang Li is a Professor in the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests are organic semiconductor and hybrid semiconductor materials, device engineering and physics for energy applications. He obtained BS degree from Wuhan University, MS and PhD degrees from Iowa State University. He was a research professor in UCLA, and VP of Solarmer Energy Inc. He is a Highly Cited Researcher since 2014, and most recently in the categories of Materials Science, Physics and Chemistry. He published ∼110 papers, with over 50k citations. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry. Shu Kong So obtained his bachelor degree from Hamilton College and Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University. In Cornell, he did research on surface physics and chemistry of small molecules on metal and semiconductor surfaces. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department of the University of Toronto where he used scanning tunneling microscope to study surface photochemistry. In 1992, he joined the Department of Physics, Hong Kong Baptist University. Now he is a Professor of Physics. His major research interest is in the physics and the chemistry of thin film materials including transport and defect study of organic films, fabrication of organic solar cells and thin film transistors, surface and optical spectroscopies of materials, and pulsed laser deposition.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - Single junction organic solar cells (OSCs) have now achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 17 %. Most of these high performance OSCs contain fullerene acceptors (FAs) and non-fullerene small-molecule acceptors (NFSMAs). In contrast, there are very limited usages of polymer acceptors. Recently, there are escalating recognition among perylene-diimide/naphthalene-diimide (PDI/NDI) and B⟵N-unit n-type polymers as electron acceptors in the all-polymer solar cells. FAs like PC71BM suffer from multiple limitations. They include restricted energy level tuning, weak absorptions in visible region, narrow spectral breadth, and morphological instability. In contrast to FAs, NFSMAs offer numerous advantages. They include strong and broad absorption in the visible and even the NIR region, tunable energy levels, and simple synthesis and purification procedures. Despite these advantages, the long-term device stability and large-area roll-to-roll (R2R) fabrication remain the major issues for the commercialization for NFSMA-based OSCs. All-polymer solar cells, on the other hand, largely address the problems of device stability and large-area film processing. Many all-polymer solar cells have been demonstrated to possess long-term thermal, photo and mechanical stability. Meanwhile, the precursor solutions for all-polymer solar cells enjoy superior control in the solution viscosity, which is an important factor for the solution processing of large-scale OSCs. Before 2015, all-polymer solar cells received little attention due to their disappointing device performance. Afterwards, PCEs of all-polymer solar cells are picking up. Currently, the best cells have achieved PCEs in excess of 11 %. Here, we provide a systematic review on the evolution of n-type polymeric acceptors used in OSCs. In addition, we summarize the morphological and charge carrier transport properties of all-polymer solar cells and compare with their small molecule acceptor counterparts. The outstanding properties of all-polymer solar cells are discussed from the perspectives of morphology and electron transport in bulk heterojunctions (BHJs). The concept of electron percolation in all-polymer BHJs is introduced and correlated with the excellent device stability. This review should have a broad appeal and enable researchers in comprehending the achievements, challenges, and future directions of all-polymer solar cells.
AB - Single junction organic solar cells (OSCs) have now achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 17 %. Most of these high performance OSCs contain fullerene acceptors (FAs) and non-fullerene small-molecule acceptors (NFSMAs). In contrast, there are very limited usages of polymer acceptors. Recently, there are escalating recognition among perylene-diimide/naphthalene-diimide (PDI/NDI) and B⟵N-unit n-type polymers as electron acceptors in the all-polymer solar cells. FAs like PC71BM suffer from multiple limitations. They include restricted energy level tuning, weak absorptions in visible region, narrow spectral breadth, and morphological instability. In contrast to FAs, NFSMAs offer numerous advantages. They include strong and broad absorption in the visible and even the NIR region, tunable energy levels, and simple synthesis and purification procedures. Despite these advantages, the long-term device stability and large-area roll-to-roll (R2R) fabrication remain the major issues for the commercialization for NFSMA-based OSCs. All-polymer solar cells, on the other hand, largely address the problems of device stability and large-area film processing. Many all-polymer solar cells have been demonstrated to possess long-term thermal, photo and mechanical stability. Meanwhile, the precursor solutions for all-polymer solar cells enjoy superior control in the solution viscosity, which is an important factor for the solution processing of large-scale OSCs. Before 2015, all-polymer solar cells received little attention due to their disappointing device performance. Afterwards, PCEs of all-polymer solar cells are picking up. Currently, the best cells have achieved PCEs in excess of 11 %. Here, we provide a systematic review on the evolution of n-type polymeric acceptors used in OSCs. In addition, we summarize the morphological and charge carrier transport properties of all-polymer solar cells and compare with their small molecule acceptor counterparts. The outstanding properties of all-polymer solar cells are discussed from the perspectives of morphology and electron transport in bulk heterojunctions (BHJs). The concept of electron percolation in all-polymer BHJs is introduced and correlated with the excellent device stability. This review should have a broad appeal and enable researchers in comprehending the achievements, challenges, and future directions of all-polymer solar cells.
KW - All-polymer solar cells
KW - Chemical structure
KW - Device physics
KW - Electron transport
KW - Organic solar cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077796422&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.mser.2019.100542
DO - 10.1016/j.mser.2019.100542
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0927-796X
VL - 140
JO - Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports
JF - Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports
M1 - 100542
ER -
