Material insights and challenges for non-fullerene organic solar cells based on small molecular acceptors

Jianquan Zhang; Huei Shuan Tan; Xugang Guo; Antonio Facchetti; He Yan

doi:10.1038/s41560-018-0181-5

Material insights and challenges for non-fullerene organic solar cells based on small molecular acceptors

Jianquan Zhang, Huei Shuan Tan, Xugang Guo, Antonio Facchetti, He Yan^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

651 Scopus citations

Abstract

The field of non-fullerene organic solar cells has experienced rapid development during the past few years, mainly driven by the development of novel non-fullerene acceptors and matching donor semiconductors. However, organic solar cell material development has progressed via a trial-and-error approach with limited understanding of the materials’ structure–property relationships and the underlying device physics of non-fullerene devices. In addition, the availability of hundreds of donor and acceptor semiconductors creates an extremely large pool of possible donor–acceptor combinations, which poses a daunting challenge for rational material screening and matching. This Review describes several important conceptual aspects of the emerging non-fullerene devices by highlighting key contributions that provided fundamental insights regarding rational material design, donor–acceptor pair matching, blend morphology control and the reduced voltage losses in non-fullerene organic solar cells. We also discuss the key challenges that need to be addressed to develop more-efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	720-731
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Energy
Volume	3
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0181-5
State	Published - Sep 1 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Fuel Technology
Energy Engineering and Power Technology

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s41560-018-0181-5

Cite this

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title = "Material insights and challenges for non-fullerene organic solar cells based on small molecular acceptors",

abstract = "The field of non-fullerene organic solar cells has experienced rapid development during the past few years, mainly driven by the development of novel non-fullerene acceptors and matching donor semiconductors. However, organic solar cell material development has progressed via a trial-and-error approach with limited understanding of the materials{\textquoteright} structure–property relationships and the underlying device physics of non-fullerene devices. In addition, the availability of hundreds of donor and acceptor semiconductors creates an extremely large pool of possible donor–acceptor combinations, which poses a daunting challenge for rational material screening and matching. This Review describes several important conceptual aspects of the emerging non-fullerene devices by highlighting key contributions that provided fundamental insights regarding rational material design, donor–acceptor pair matching, blend morphology control and the reduced voltage losses in non-fullerene organic solar cells. We also discuss the key challenges that need to be addressed to develop more-efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells.",

author = "Jianquan Zhang and Tan, {Huei Shuan} and Xugang Guo and Antonio Facchetti and He Yan",

note = "Funding Information: H.Y. and J.Z. acknowledge financial support from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program; 2013CB834705), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (T23–407/13-N, N_HKUST623/13, and 606012), the National Science Foundation of China (#21374090) and the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC-CNERC14SC01). A.F. acknowledges the US National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program through the Northwestern University Materials Research Center (grant DMR-1121262) and US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-15-1-0044) for financial support. X.G. acknowledges financial support from National Science Foundation of China (51573076), Shenzhen Peacock Plan project (KQTD20140630110339343) and South University of Science and Technology of China (FRG-SUSTC1501A-72). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, The Author(s).",

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N1 - Funding Information: H.Y. and J.Z. acknowledge financial support from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program; 2013CB834705), the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (T23–407/13-N, N_HKUST623/13, and 606012), the National Science Foundation of China (#21374090) and the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC-CNERC14SC01). A.F. acknowledges the US National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program through the Northwestern University Materials Research Center (grant DMR-1121262) and US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-15-1-0044) for financial support. X.G. acknowledges financial support from National Science Foundation of China (51573076), Shenzhen Peacock Plan project (KQTD20140630110339343) and South University of Science and Technology of China (FRG-SUSTC1501A-72). Publisher Copyright: © 2018, The Author(s).

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N2 - The field of non-fullerene organic solar cells has experienced rapid development during the past few years, mainly driven by the development of novel non-fullerene acceptors and matching donor semiconductors. However, organic solar cell material development has progressed via a trial-and-error approach with limited understanding of the materials’ structure–property relationships and the underlying device physics of non-fullerene devices. In addition, the availability of hundreds of donor and acceptor semiconductors creates an extremely large pool of possible donor–acceptor combinations, which poses a daunting challenge for rational material screening and matching. This Review describes several important conceptual aspects of the emerging non-fullerene devices by highlighting key contributions that provided fundamental insights regarding rational material design, donor–acceptor pair matching, blend morphology control and the reduced voltage losses in non-fullerene organic solar cells. We also discuss the key challenges that need to be addressed to develop more-efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells.

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Material insights and challenges for non-fullerene organic solar cells based on small molecular acceptors

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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