Recent studies on small molecular and polymeric hole-transporting materials for high-performance perovskite solar cells

A decade of significant research has led to the emergence of photovoltaic solar cells based on perovskites that have achieved an exceptionally high-power conversion efficiency of 26.08%. A key breakthrough in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) occurred when solid hole-transporting materials (HTMs) replaced liquid electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), because HTMs play a crucial role in improving photovoltaic performance as well as cell stability. This review is mainly focused on the HTMs that are responsible for hole transport and extraction in PSCs, which is one of the crucial components for efficient devices. Here, we have reviewed small molecular as well as polymeric HTMs that have been reported in the last two years and discussed their performance based on the analysis of their molecular architectures. Finally, we include a perspective on the molecular engineering of new functional HTMs for highly efficient stable PSCs.     

Crystalline Conjugated Polymers for Organic Solar Cells: From Donor,Acceptor to Single‐Component

Organic solar cells have made rapid progress in the last two decades due to the innovation of conjugated materials and photovoltaic devices. Microphase separation that connects with materials and devices plays a crucial role in the charge generation process. In this account, we summary our recent works of developing new crystalline conjugated polymers to control the microphase separation in thin films in order to realize high performance in solar cells, including crystalline diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based donor polymers, perylene bisimide‐based electron acceptors, and “double‐cable” conjugated polymers that contain covalently‐linked crystalline donor and acceptor in one material for single‐component organic solar cells.     

Efficient perovskite solar cells employing a solution-processable copper phthalocyanine as a hole-transporting material

The development of alternative low-cost and high-performing hole-transporting materials(HTMs) is of great significance for the potential large-scale application of perovskite solar cells(PSCs) in the future.Here,a facilely synthesized solution-processable copper tetra-(2,4-dimethyl-3-pentoxy) phthalocyanine(CuPc-DMP) via only two simple steps,has been incorporated as a hole-transporting material(HTM) in mesoscopic perovskite solar cells(PSCs).The optimized devices based on such a HTM afford a very competitive power conversion efficiency(PCE) of up to 17.1%measured at 100 mW cm~(-2) AM 1.5G irradiation,which is on par with that of the well-known 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N'N'-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9'-spirobifluorene(spiro-OMeTAD)(16.7%) under equivalent conditions.This is,to the best of our knowledge,the highest value reported so far for metal organic complex-based HTMs in PSCs.The advantages of this HTM observed,such as facile synthetic procedure,superior hole transport characteristic,high photovoltaic performance together with the feasibility of tailoring the molecular structure would make solution-processable copper phthalocyanines as a class of promising HTM that can be further explored in PSCs.The present finding highlights the potential application of solution processed metal organic complexes as HTMs for cost-effective and high-performing PSCs.     

Diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based Conjugated Polymers Bearing Branched Oligo(Ethylene Glycol) Side Chains for Photovoltaic Devices

Conjugated polymers are essential for solution‐processable organic opto‐electronic devices. In contrast to the great efforts on developing new conjugated polymer backbones, research on developing side chains is rare. Herein, we report branched oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) as side chains of conjugated polymers. Compared with typical alkyl side chains, branched OEG side chains endowed the resulting conjugated polymers with a smaller π‐π stacking distance, higher hole mobility, smaller optical band gap, higher dielectric constant, and larger surface energy. Moreover, the conjugated polymers with branched OEG side chains exhibited outstanding photovoltaic performance in polymer solar cells. A power conversion efficiency of 5.37 % with near‐infrared photoresponse was demonstrated and the device performance could be insensitive to the active layer thickness.     

共轭聚合物发光和光伏材料研究进展

聚合物光电功能材料与器件因其广阔的应用前景,1990年以年来吸引了世界各国学术界的广泛关注和兴趣.聚合物光电子器件主要包括聚合物电致发光二极管、聚合物场效应晶体管和聚合物太阳能电池等,其使用的关键材料是共轭聚合物光电子材料,包括共轭聚合物发光材料、场效应晶体管材料和光伏材料等.本文主要对共轭聚合物电致发光材料和光伏材料的研究进展进行综述,介绍了这些聚合物材料的种类、结构和性质以及在聚合物电致发光器件和聚合物太阳能电池中的应用.并讨论了当前共轭聚合物光电子材料中的关键科学问题和今后的发展方向.     

N-Type Quinoidal Polymers Based on Dipyrrolopyrazinedione for Application in All-Polymer Solar Cells

Conjugated molecules and polymers with intrinsic quinoidal structure are promising n-type organic semiconductors, which have been reported for application in field-effect transistors and thermoelectric devices. In principle, the molecular and electronic characteristics of quinoidal polymers can also enable their application in organic solar cells. Herein, two quinoidal polymers, named PzDP-T and PzDP-ffT, based on dipyrrolopyrazinedione were synthesized and used as electron acceptors in all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). Both PzDP-T and PzDP-ffT showed suitable energy levels and wide light absorption range that extended to the near-infrared region. When combined with the polymer donor PBDB-T, the resulting all-PSCs based on PzDP-T and PzDP-ffT exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.33 and 2.37 %, respectively. This is the first report on the application of intrinsic quinoidal conjugated polymers in all-PSCs. The photovoltaic performance of the all-PSCs was revealed to be mainly limited by the relatively poor and imbalanced charge transport, considerable charge recombination. Detailed investigations on the structure-performance relationship suggested that synergistic optimization of light absorption, energy levels, and charge transport properties is needed to achieve more successful application of intrinsic quinoidal conjugated polymers in all-PSCs.     

Polymer Donors for High‐Performance Non‐Fullerene Organic Solar Cells

Over the past few years, non‐fullerene organic solar cells have been a focus of research and their power conversion efficiencies have been improved dramatically from about 6 % to over 14 %. In addition to innovations in non‐fullerene acceptors, the ongoing development of polymer donors has contributed significantly to the rapid progress of non‐fullerene organic solar cell performance. This Minireview highlights the polymer donors that enable high‐performance non‐fullerene organic solar cells. We show the impressive photovoltaic devices results achieved by some of important classes of conjugated polymer systems in non‐fullerene organic solar cells. We discuss the molecular design strategies as far as developing matching polymer donors for non‐fullerene acceptors. We conclude with a brief summary and outlook for advances in donor polymers required for commercialization.     

Luminscent graphene quantum dots for organic photovoltaic devices

Recent research in organic photovoltaic (OPV) is largely focused on developing low cost OPV materials such as graphene. However, graphene sheets (GSs) blended conjugated polymers are known to show inferior OPV characteristics as compared to fullerene adduct blended with conjugated polymer. Here, we demonstrate that graphene quantum dots blended with regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) or poly(2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4phenylenevinylene) polymer results in a significant improvement in the OPV characteristics as compared to GSs blended conjugated polymers. This work has implications for inexpensive and efficient solar cells as well as organic light emitting diodes.     

Side-chain engineering of high-efficiency conjugated polymer photovoltaic materials

In recent years,conjugated polymers have attracted great attention in the application as photovoltaic donor materials in polymer solar cells(PSCs).Broad absorption,lower-energy bandgap,higher hole mobility,relatively lower HOMO energy levels,and higher solubility are important for the conjugated polymer donor materials to achieve high photovoltaic performance.Side-chain engineering plays a very important role in optimizing the physicochemical properties of the conjugated polymers.In this article,we review recent progress on the side-chain engineering of conjugated polymer donor materials,including the optimization of flexible side-chains for balancing solubility and intermolecular packing(aggregation),electron-withdrawing substituents for lowering HOMO energy levels,and two-dimension(2D)-conjugated polymers with conjugated side-chains for broadening absorption and enhancing hole mobility.After the molecular structural optimization by side-chain engineering,the2D-conjugated polymers based on benzodithiophene units demonstrated the best photovoltaic performance,with powerconversion efficiency higher than 9%.     

New advances in small molecule hole-transporting materials for perovskite solar cells

Organic π-functional molecules are the foundation and basic component of organic optoelectronic devices.For example,for ideal carrier transporting materials,extended π-conjugation and ordered π-πstacking are necessary to enhance the charge mobility and achieve desirable results.As a promising way to convert sunlight into electricity,organometal halide perovskite solar cells(PSCs) have captured a lot of attention due to its predominant merits especially in the aspect of remarkable photovoltaic performance and much potentially low production cost.For conventional planar PSC structure,hole-transporting layer which typically consists of organic π-functional materials plays a key role in suppressing holeelectron pair recombination,promoting charge transporting and ensuring ohmic contact of back electrode.Considering the key roles of HTMs and its soaring progress in recent years,here,we will summarize recent progress in small organic π-functional materials from its diverse functions in PSCs.Besides,aiming to further promote the development of organic π-functional molecules and HTMs,a promising direction toward highly efficient HTMs will also be discussed.     

Heavy metal complex containing organic/polymer materials for bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic devices

The application of heavy-metal complexes in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells is a promising new research field which has attracted increasing attention, due to their strong spin-orbit coupling for efficient singlet to triplet intersystem crossing. This review article focuses on recent advances of heavy metal complex containing organic and polymer materials as photovoltaic donors in BHJ solar cells. Platinum-acetylide containing oligomersor and polymers have been firstly illustrated due to the good solubility, square planar structure, as well as the fairly strong Pt-Pt interaction. Then the cyclometalated Pt or Ir complex containing conjugated oligomers and polymers are presented in which the triplet organometallic compounds are embedded into the organic/polymer backbone either through cyclometalated main ligand or the auxiliary ligand. Pure triplet small molecular cyclometalated Ir complex are also briefly introduced. Besides the chemical modification, physical doping of cyclometalated heavy metal complexes as additives into the photovoltaic active layers is finally demonstrated.     

Dopant‐Free Squaraine‐Based Polymeric Hole‐Transporting Materials with Comprehensive Passivation Effects for Efficient All‐Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells

Development of high‐performance dopant‐free hole‐transporting materials (HTMs) with comprehensive passivation effects is highly desirable for all‐inorganic perovskite solar cells (PVSCs). Squaraines (SQs) could be a candidate for dopant‐free HTMs as they are natural passivators for perovskites. One major limitation of SQs is their relatively low hole mobility. Herein we demonstrate that polymerizing SQs into pseudo two dimensional (2D) p–π conjugated polymers could overcome this problem. By rationally using N,N‐diarylanilinosquaraines as the comonomers, the resulting polysquaraine HTMs not only exhibit suitable energy levels and efficient passivation effects, but also achieve very high hole mobility close to 0.01 cm^?2 V^?1 s^?1. Thus as dopant‐free HTMs for α‐CsPbI₂Br‐based all‐inorganic PVSCs, the best PCE reached is 15.5 %, outperforming those of the doped‐Spiro‐OMeTAD (14.4 %) based control devices and among the best for all‐inorganic PVSCs.     

有机空穴传输材料在钙钛矿太阳电池中的应用

有机-无机杂化钙钛矿太阳电池(PSCs)由于其诸多优点得到广泛关注,而有机固态空穴传输材料(HTMs)代替液体电解质使其得到飞速的发展,提升了电池的效率和稳定性,已经成为PSCs的重要组成部分。目前应用于PSCs的空穴传输材料分为有机空穴传输材料和无机空穴传输材料两大类。无机空穴传输材料的可选择范围较窄,对应器件的光电转换效率相对较低。开发各类能级匹配、空穴迁移率高的有机空穴传输材料是提高器件效率和稳定性的有效手段,成为相关领域的研究热点。本文依据相对分子质量的大小,将应用于PSCs中的有机空穴传输材料分为小分子类和聚合物类空穴传输材料,详细评述了有机空穴传输材料分子结构对PSCs光电转换效率、填充因子、开路电压、短路电流和稳定性的影响,并对其能级、空穴迁移率的高低、添加剂的使用等进行了讨论。最后详细论述了有机空穴传输材料未来的研究重点和发展趋势。     

Inorganic p-type semiconductors and carbon materials based hole transport materials for perovskite solar cells

Incorporation of proper inorganic p-type semiconductors as hole transport layer has great potential to increase long-term stability while maintaining high power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells with low material cost.     

Conjugated polymers with benzothiadiazole,benzoxadiazole, and benzotriazole moieties as promising semiconductor materials for organic solar cells

Organic solar cells are being intensively developed in many laboratories around the world. This work has resulted in a rapid increase in the efficiency of organic solar cells; record figures of 10–12% were achieved in 2011–2013. This review focuses on one of the most promising groups of conjugated polymers: those containing electron-deficient units based on benzothiadiazole, benzoxadiazole, and benzotriazole in the backbone. Particular attention is paid to the optoelectronic characteristics (the HOMO energy and band gap) and the photovoltaic characteristics of conjugated copolymers containing various structural units in their molecular structures.     

Perovskite solar cells: Thermal and chemical stability improvement,and economic analysis

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are highly efficient and are comparatively cheaper than the large silicon crystals primarily used in solar cells. Their outstanding photovoltaic performance makes them a potential alternative to silicon solar cells. While efficiency and photovoltaic performance have been investigated in recent decades, a knowledge gap on the degradation, economic feasibility and stability of PSCs exists, and their poor stability remains a barrier to commercialization. Thus, this review aims to fill this knowledge gap by focusing on approaches to improve PSCs’ thermal and chemical stability, and their economic viability under different conditions. The structure and manufacture of PSCs are also discussed along with an economic analysis of different perovskite devices. Improvements in thermal stability can be reached by incorporating inorganic materials into the PSC. A PSC model optimized with ZnO improves chemical stability by 8% and works well under low temperatures. To make PSCs more economically feasible, certain parts like counter electrodes (CE) and hole transport materials (HTMs) can be replaced with alternative elements like carbon and inorganic HTMs, respectively. PSCs with long durability and high conversion efficiency will expand the commercial prospects for this material. To bridge the lack of knowledge, further investigation is required on the sustainability and longevity of PSCs.     

Tuning the absorption, charge transport properties, and solar cell efficiency with the number of thienyl rings in platinum-containing poly(aryleneethynylene)s

The synthesis, characterization, and photophysics of a series of solution-processable and strongly visible-light absorbing platinum(II) polyynes containing bithiazole-oligo(thienyl) rings were presented. Tuning the polymer solar cell efficiency, as well as optical and charge transport properties, in soluble, low-band gap PtII-based conjugated poly(heteroaryleneethynylene)s using the number of oligothienyl rings is described. These materials are highly soluble in polar organic solvents due to the presence of solubilizing bithiazole moieties and show strong absorptions in the solar spectra, rendering them excellent candidates for bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells. Their photovoltaic responses and power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) depend to a large extent on the number of thienyl rings along the main chain, and some of them can be used to fabricate highly efficient solar cells with PCEs of up to 2.7% and a peak external quantum efficiency to 83% under AM1.5 simulated solar illumination, which is comparable to that of poly(3-hexylthiophene)-based devices fabricated without additional processing (annealing or TiO(x) layer). The influence of the number of thienyl rings and the metal group on the performance parameters and optimization of solar cell efficiency was evaluated and discussed in detail. At the same blend ratio of 1:4, the light-harvesting ability and PCE increase sharply as the thienyl chain length increases. The present work provides an attractive approach to developing conjugated metallopolymers offering broad solar absorptions and tunable solar cell efficiency and demonstrates the potential of metalated conjugated polymers for efficient power generation.     

基于富勒烯和噻吩聚合物的本体异质结太阳电池

随着全球能源需求量的逐年增加,对可再生能源的有效利用成为亟待解决的问题。现在使用的能源多来自矿物燃料的开采,其中包括石油、天然气和煤等,而这些资源是非常有限的。因此,发展新能源和新能源材料是我国进入21世纪必须解决的重大课题,其中太阳能被认为是清洁可再生新能源的代表之一。基于噻吩跟富勒烯的异质结太阳能电池是目前太阳能电池的重要发展方向之一。该种太阳能电池因其制备简单、成本低廉、重量轻和可制成柔性器件等优点近年来受到多方的广泛重视。经过努力,该种太阳能电池的光电转化性能已经得到了一定提高,最高光电转化效率已达到7%左右,但是跟无机半导体硅和染料敏化太阳能电池相比还有一定差距。因此,这方面的研究任重而道远,研究空间也非常大。本文从材料合成的角度,简要综述了近年来国内外在基于富勒烯和噻吩的异质结太阳能电池方面所取得的最新研究进展,并对下一步需要研究的热点问题作了展望。     

Electron transporting semiconducting polymers in organic electronics

Significant progress has been achieved in the preparation of semiconducting polymers over the past two decades, and successful commercial devices based on them are slowly beginning to enter the market. However, most of the conjugated polymers are hole transporting, or p-type, semiconductors that have seen a dramatic rise in performance over the last decade. Much less attention has been devoted to electron transporting, or n-type, materials that have lagged behind their p-type counterparts. Organic electron transporting materials are essential for the fabrication of organic p-n junctions, organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), n-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and complementary logic circuits. In this critical review we focus upon recent developments in several classes of electron transporting semiconducting polymers used in OLEDs, OFETs and OPVs, and survey and analyze what is currently known concerning electron transporting semiconductor architecture, electronic structure, and device performance relationships (87 references).     

Emerging of Inorganic Hole Transporting Materials For Perovskite Solar Cells

Hole transporting material (HTM) is a significant component to achieve the high performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Over the years, inorganic, organic and hybrid (organic‐inorganic) material based HTMs have been developed and investigated successfully. Today, perovskite solar cells achieved the efficiency of 22.1 % with with 2,2’,7,7’‐tetrakis(N,N‐di‐p‐methoxyphenyl‐amine) 9,9‐spirobifluorene (spiro‐OMeTAD) as HTM. Nevertheless, synthesis and cost of organic HTMs is a major challenging issue and therefore alternative materials are required. From the past few years, inorganic HTMs showed large improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability. Recently CuO_x reached the PCE of 19.0% with better stability. These developments affirms that inorganic HTMs are better alternativesto the organic HTMs for next generation PSCs. In this report, we mainly focussed on the recent advances of inorganic and hybrid HTMs for PSCs and highlighted the efficiency and stability of PSCs improved by changing metal oxides as HTMs. Consequently, we expect that energy levels of these inorganic HTMs matches very well with the valence band of perovskites and improved efficiency helps in future practical deployment of low cost PSCs.