Combining Fullerenes and Zwitterions in Non‐Conjugated Polymer Interlayers to Raise Solar Cell Efficiency

Polymer zwitterions were synthesized by nucleophilic ring‐opening of 3,3′‐(but‐2‐ene‐1,4‐diyl)bis(1,2‐oxathiolane 2,2‐dioxide) (a bis‐sultone) with functional perylene diimide (PDI) or fullerene monomers. Integration of these polymers into solar cell devices as cathode interlayers boosted efficiencies of fullerene‐based organic photovoltaics (OPVs) from 2.75 % to 10.74 %, and of non‐fullerene‐based OPVs from 4.25 % to 10.10 %, demonstrating the versatility of these interlayer materials in OPVs. The fullerene‐containing polymer zwitterion ( C₆₀‐PZ ) showed a higher interfacial dipole (Δ) value and electron mobility than its PDI counterpart ( PDI‐PZ ), affording solar cells with high efficiency. The power of PDI‐PZ and C₆₀‐PZ to improve electron injection and extraction processes when positioned between metal electrodes and organic semiconductors highlights their promise to overcome energy barriers at the hard‐soft materials interface of organic electronics.     

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.     

Naphthalene‐Diimide‐Based Ionenes as Universal Interlayers for Efficient Organic Solar Cells

Self‐doping ionene polymers were efficiently synthesized by reacting functional naphthalene diimide (NDI) with 1,3‐dibromopropane ( NDI‐NI ) or trans‐1,4‐dibromo‐2‐butene ( NDI‐CI ) via quaternization polymerization. These NDI‐based ionene polymers are universal interlayers with random molecular orientation, boosting the efficiencies of fullerene‐based, non‐fullerene‐based, and ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) over a wide range of interlayer thicknesses, with a maximum efficiency of 16.9 %. NDI‐NI showed a higher interfacial dipole (Δ), conductivity, and electron mobility than NDI‐CI , affording solar cells with higher efficiencies. These polymers proved to efficiently lower the work function (WF) of air‐stable metals and optimize the contact between metal electrode and organic semiconductor, highlighting their power to overcome energy barriers of electron injection and extraction processes for efficient organic electronics.     

Development of Organic Dye‐Based Molecular Materials for Use in Fullerene‐Free Organic Solar Cells

This personal account describes the pursuit of non‐fullerene acceptors designed from simple and accessible organic pi‐conjugated building blocks and assembled through efficient direct (hetero)arylation cross‐coupling protocols. Initial materials development focused on isoindigo and diketopyrrolopyrrole organic dyes flanked by imide‐based terminal acceptors. Efficiencies in solution‐processed organic solar cells were modest but highlighted the potential of the material design. Materials performance was improved through structural engineering to pair perylene diimide with these organic dyes. Optimization of active layer processing and solar cell device fabrication identified the perylene diimide flanked diketopyrrolopyrrole structure as the best framework, with fullerene‐free organic solar cells achieving power conversion efficiencies above 6 %. This material has met our criteria for a simple wide band gap fullerene alternative for pairing with a range of donor polymers.     

A Novel BODIPY‐Based Low‐Band‐Gap Small‐Molecule Acceptor for Efficient Non‐fullerene Polymer Solar Cells

We report herein an efficient A¹‐C≡C‐A²‐C≡C‐A¹ type small‐molecule 4,4'‐difluoro‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐ indacene (BODIPY) acceptor (A¹=BODIPY and A²=diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)) by following the A‐to‐A excited electron delocalization via the BODIPY meso ‐position, the inherent directionality for the excited electron delocalization. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) delocalizes across over whole the two flanking A¹ and the central A², and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) localizes dominantly on the ‐C≡C‐DPP‐C≡C‐ segment. The excited electron upon light excitation of the DPP segment delocalizes over both the BODIPY and DPP segments. The acceptor in chloroform shows an unprecedented plateau‐like broad absorption between 550 and 700 nm with a large FWHM value of 195 nm. Upon transition into solid film, the acceptor shows absorption in the whole near ultraviolet‐visible‐near infrared wavelength region (300‐830 nm) with a low band gap of 1.5 eV and a maximum absorptivity of 0.85×10⁵ cm^‐1. Introduction of the ethynyl spacer between the A¹ and A² and the close BODIPY‐to‐DPP LUMO energy levels are crucial for the excited π−electron delocalization across over whole the conjugation backbone. A power conversion efficiency of 6.60% was obtained from the ternary non‐fullerene solar cell with PTB7‐Th:p ‐DTS(FBTTh₂)₂ (0.5 : 0.5) as the donor materials, which is the highest value among the non‐fullerene organic solar cells with BODIPY as the electron acceptor material.     

All‐Polymer Solar Cells: Recent Progress,Challenges, and Prospects

For over two decades bulk‐heterojunction polymer solar cell (BHJ‐PSC) research was dominated by donor:acceptor BHJ blends based on polymer donors and fullerene molecular acceptors. This situation has changed recently, with non‐fullerene PSCs developing very rapidly. The power conversion efficiencies of non‐fullerene PSCs have now reached over 15 %, which is far above the most efficient fullerene‐based PSCs. Among the various non‐fullerene PSCs, all‐polymer solar cells (APSCs) based on polymer donor‐polymer acceptor BHJs have attracted growing attention, due to the following attractions: 1) large and tunable light absorption of the polymer donor/polymer acceptor pair; 2) robustness of the BHJ film morphology; 3) compatibility with large scale/large area manufacturing; 4) long‐term stability of the cell to external environmental and mechanical stresses. This Minireview highlights the opportunities offered by APSCs, selected polymer families suitable for these devices with optimization to enhance the performance further, and discusses the challenges facing APSC development for commercial applications.     

Effect of multiple adduct fullerenes on charge generation and transport in photovoltaic blends with poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl)

The effect of replacing [6,6]‐phenyl‐C₆₁ butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) by its multiadduct analogs (bis‐PCBM and tris‐PCBM) in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells with poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl) (P3HT) is studied in terms of blend film microstructure, photophysics, electron transport properties, and device performance. Although the power conversion efficiency of the blend with bis‐PCBM is similar to the blend with PCBM, the performance of the devices with tris‐PCBM is considerably lower as a result of small photocurrent. Despite the lower electron affinity of the fullerene multiadducts, μs‐ms transient absorption measurements show that the charge generation efficiency is similar for all three fullerenes. The annealed blend films with multiadducts show a lower degree of fullerene aggregation and lower P3HT crystallinity than the annealed blend films with PCBM. We conclude that the reduction in performance is due largely to poorer electron transport in the blend films from higher adducts, due to the poorer fullerene network formation as well as the slower electron transport within the fullerene phase, confirmed here by field effect transistor measurements. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2010     

Green‐Solvent‐Processed Molecular Solar Cells

High‐efficiency bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies of more than 5 % can be fabricated using the green solvent 2‐MeTHF. The active layers comprise a blend of a molecular semiconductor donor with intermediate dimensions (X2) and the soluble fullerene derivative [6,6]‐phenyl‐C₆₁‐butyricacidoctylester (PC₆₁BC₈). A switch of the processing solvent from chloroform to 2‐MeTHF leads to no negative impacts on the morphology and charge‐transport properties of optimally performing BHJ films. Examinations by absorption spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and grazing incidence wide‐angle X‐ray scattering reveal no significant modification of morphology. These results show that green solvents can be excellent alternatives for large‐area printing of high‐performance organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and thus open new opportunities for sustainable mass production of organic solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.     

Small Molecule Based Non‐Fullerene Acceptors: A Comparative Study

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have gained attention of the scientific community from the last decade and are now considered as one of the most important source for low‐cost power production. The recent rapid progress in non‐fullerene acceptors in BHJ indicates that they have potential to compete with fullerene‐based BHJ OSCs. The present review addressed the systematic comparison among various acceptors (diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP), benzothiadiazole (BTD) and perylenediimide (PDI) based acceptors) in order to design and improve the performance of small molecules based non‐fullerene acceptors. This review focuses on the performance of small molecule non‐fullerene acceptors based on DPP, BTD and PDI for OSCs with respect to the change in molecular structures, energy levels, and PCE. A systematic comparison on the effect of molecular architecture, side chains on their performance is provided with the intention of evaluating the challenge to make highly efficient acceptors for the next generation organic photovoltaics.     

An Azaacene Derivative as Promising Electron‐Transport Layer for Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

It is highly desirable to develop novel n‐type organic small molecules as an efficient electron‐transport layer (ETL) for the replacement of PCBM to obtain high‐performance metal‐oxide‐free, solution‐processed inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) because this type of solar cells with a low‐temperature and solution‐based process would make their fabrication more feasible and practical. In this research, the new azaacene QCAPZ has been synthesized and employed as non‐fullerene ETL material for inverted PSCs through a solution‐based process without the need for additional dopants or additives. The as‐fabricated inverted PSCs show a power conversion efficiency up to 10.26 %. Our results clearly suggest that larger azaacenes could be promising electron‐transport materials to achieve high‐performance solution‐processed inverted PSCs.     

High‐Performance Organic Solar Cells Based on a Non‐Fullerene Acceptor with a Spiro Core

Derived from perylenediimide (PDI) building blocks, 3D PDI molecules are considered as a type of promising structure to overcome molecular aggregation, thus improving the performance of organic solar cells. Herein, we report a novel PDI‐based derivative, SCPDT‐PDI₄ , with four PDI units connected to a unique spiro core. Attributed to this novel molecular design, SCPDT‐PDI₄ exhibits a rigid 3D structure, in which the aggregation tendency of PDI chromophores could be effectively attenuated. Additionally, strong intramolecular charge transfer and high charge mobility are achieved due to the well‐conjugated structure and electron‐rich property of SCPDT. Therefore, fullerene‐free organic solar cells based on SCPDT‐PDI₄ and PTB7‐Th achieve a remarkable high efficiency of 7.11 %. Such an excellent result demonstrates the opportunity of SCPDT to be a promising building block for non‐fullerene acceptors.     

An Electron Acceptor with Porphyrin and Perylene Bisimides for Efficient Non‐Fullerene Solar Cells

A star‐shaped electron acceptor based on porphyrin as a core and perylene bisimide as end groups was constructed for application in non‐fullerene organic solar cells. The new conjugated molecule exhibits aligned energy levels, good electron mobility, and complementary absorption with a donor polymer. These advantages facilitate a high power conversion efficiency of 7.4 % in non‐fullerene solar cells, which represents the highest photovoltaic performance based on porphyrin derivatives as the acceptor.     

Consecutive Charging of a Perylene Bisimide Dye by Multistep Low‐Energy Solar‐Light‐Induced Electron Transfer Towards H2 Evolution

A photocatalytic system containing a perylene bisimide (PBI) dye as a photosensitizer anchored to titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles through carboxyl groups was constructed. Under solar‐light irradiation in the presence of sacrificial triethanolamine (TEOA) in neutral and basic conditions (pH 8.5), a reaction cascade is initiated in which the PBI molecule first absorbs green light, giving the formation of a stable radical anion (PBI^.?), which in a second step absorbs near‐infrared light, forming a stable PBI dianion (PBI^2?). Finally, the dianion absorbs red light and injects an electron into the TiO₂ nanoparticle that is coated with platinum co‐catalyst for hydrogen evolution. The hydrogen evolution rates (HERs) are as high as 1216 and 1022 μmol h^?1 g^?1 with simulated sunlight irradiation in neutral and basic conditions, respectively.     

Macroporous Oxide Platforms Templated by Non‐Close‐Packed Spherical Copolymer Aggregates

Exclusive organic templating of macroporous oxide films is reported by using non‐close and lose packing of spherical copolymer aggregates, in combination with facile control of condensation degree/density of inorganic oxide frameworks. Unique macroporous oxide films, mainly titania showing highly porous, crystalline, and versatile properties, can be fabricated with continuous design from unusual 3‐D net‐shape to tunable spherical macrostructures, which expands the preparation of other inorganic oxide films (silica, alumina, and zirconia) and possibly adapts the use of other assembled organic polymers. The macroporous structures are helpful for effective accommodation of bulky biomoleculeshigh and diffusivity of organic molecules (useful for photocatalysts). Unusual structural variation, expansion of spherical voids, is also observed, being useful for fine tuning of optical property.     

Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence of Tris(2,2′‐bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) Immobilized in Humic Acid‐Silica‐Poly(vinyl alcohol) Composite Films

In this paper, we report the first attempt to use humic acid (HA) as modifiers to prepare the organic‐inorganic hybrid modified glassy carbon electrodes based on HA‐silica‐PVA (poly(vinyl alcohol)) sol‐gel composite. Electroactive species of tris(2,2′‐bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy) ) can easily incorporate into the HA‐silica‐PVA films to form Ru(bpy) modified electrodes. The amount of Ru(bpy) incorporated in the composite films strongly depends on the amount of HA in the hybrid sol. Electrochemical and electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of Ru(bpy) immobilized in HA‐silica composite films coated on a glassy carbon electrode have been studied with tripropylamine (TPA) as the coreactant. The analytical performance of this modified electrode was evaluated in a flow injection analysis (FIA) system with a homemade flow cell. The as‐prepared electrode showed good stability and high sensitivity. The detection limits (S/N=3) were 0.050 μmol L^?1 for TPA and 0.20 μmol L^?1 for oxalate, and the linear ranges were from 0.10 μmol L^?1 to 1.0 mmol L^?1 for TPA and from 1.0 μmol L^?1 to 1.0 mmol L^?1 for oxalate, respectively. The resulting electrodes were stable over two months.     

2,3‐bis(5‐Hexylthiophen‐2‐yl)‐6,7‐bis(octyloxy)‐5,8‐di(thiophen‐2‐yl) quinoxaline: A good construction block with adjustable role in the donor‐π‐acceptor system for bulk‐heterojunction solar cells

Three 2,3‐bis(5‐hexylthiophen‐2‐yl)‐6,7‐bis(octyloxy)‐5,8‐di(thiophen‐2‐yl)‐quinoxaline ( BTTQ )‐based conjugated polymers, namely, PF‐BTTQ ( P1 ), PP‐BTTQ ( P2 ), and PDCP‐BTTQ ( P3 ), were successfully synthesized for efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs) with electron‐rich units of fluorene and dialkoxybenzene and electron‐deficient unit dicyanobenzene, respectively. All the polymers exhibited good solubility in common organic solvents and good thermal stability. Their deep‐lying HOMO energy levels enabled them good stability in the air and the relatively low HOMO energy level assured a higher open circuit potential when used in PSCs. Bulk‐heterojunction solar cells were fabricated using these copolymers blended with a fullerene derivative as an acceptor. All of them exhibited promising performance, and the best device performance with power conversion efficiency up to 3.30% was achieved under one sun of AM 1.5 solar simulator illumination (100 mW/cm²). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Constructing a Strongly Absorbing Low‐Bandgap Polymer Acceptor for High‐Performance All‐Polymer Solar Cells

All‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs) offer unique morphology stability for the application as flexible devices, but the lack of high‐performance polymer acceptors limits their power conversion efficiency (PCE) to a value lower than those of the PSCs based on fullerene derivative or organic small molecule acceptors. We herein demonstrate a strategy to synthesize a high‐performance polymer acceptor PZ1 by embedding an acceptor–donor–acceptor building block into the polymer main chain. PZ1 possesses broad absorption with a low band gap of 1.55 eV and high absorption coefficient (1.3×10⁵ cm⁻¹). The all‐PSCs with the wide‐band‐gap polymer PBDB‐T as donor and PZ1 as acceptor showed a record‐high PCE of 9.19 % for the all‐PSCs. The success of our polymerization strategy can provide a new way to develop efficient polymer acceptors for all‐PSCs.     

Incorporation of Pure Fullerene into Organoclays: Towards C60‐Pillared Clay Structures

In this work, we demonstrate the successful incorporation of pure fullerene from solution into two‐dimensional layered aluminosilicate minerals. Pure fullerenes are insoluble in water and neutral in terms of charge, hence they cannot be introduced into the clay galleries by ion exchange or intercalation from water solution. To overcome this bottleneck, we organically modified the clay with quaternary amines by using well‐established reactions in clay science in order to expand the interlayer space and render the galleries organophilic. During the reaction with the fullerene solution, the organic solvent could enter into the clay galleries, thus transferring along the fullerene molecules. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the surfactant molecules, can be selectively removed by either simple ion‐exchange reaction (e.g., interaction with Al(NO₃)₃ solution to replace the surfactant molecules with Al³⁺ ions) or thermal treatment (heating at 350 °C) to obtain novel fullerene‐pillared clay structures exhibiting enhanced surface area. The synthesized hybrid materials were characterized in detail by a combination of experimental techniques including powder X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray photoemission, and UV/Vis spectroscopy as well as thermal analysis and nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements. The reported fullerene‐pillared clay structures constitute a new hybrid system with very promising potential for the use in areas such as gas storage and/or gas separation due to their high surface area.     

Non‐surfactant template‐directed synthesis of SiO2‐polyimide hybrid self‐standing films with ordered mesoporous structure

The silica‐PI hybrid self‐standing films with ordered mesoporous structure have been prepared by using dibenzoyl‐L ‐tartaric acid (L ‐DBTA) as non‐surfactant template under mild sol–gel route. Polyimide matrix was obtained from polyamic acid (PAA) via thermal imidization process and the template was removed in this process. The PI‐based hybrid film with 20 wt% SiO₂ obtained from DBTA presented the ordered mesoporous channels with average pore size of about 2.0 nm and BET surface area of 1167 m²/g. FTIR and SEM studies indicated that the hydrogen bond interaction between the carboxylic groups of DBTA and benzamide bonds of PAA made the PAA possibly participate in the assembly process of the aggregates of the non‐surfactant template molecules. The mechanical, thermal and some physical properties of these hybrid films materials were also characterized. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stabilization of the film morphology in polymer: Fullerene heterojunction solar cells with photocrosslinkable bromine‐functionalized low‐bandgap copolymers

Novel bromine‐functionalized photocrosslinkable low‐bandgap copolymers, PBDTTT‐Br25 and PBDTTT‐Br50, are synthesized via Stille cross‐coupling polymerization for the purpose of stabilizing the film morphology in polymer solar cells (PSCs). Photocrosslinking of PBDTTT‐Br25 and PBDTTT‐Br50 copolymers dramatically improves the solvent resistance of the active layer without disrupting the molecular ordering and charge transport, which is confirmed by the insolubility of the films washed by organic solvents and by their thermal behavior. As a result, the formation of large aggregations of fullerene is suppressed in polymer:fullerene blend films even after prolonged thermal annealing, and the stability of the device is enhanced when compared with cells based on noncrosslinkable PBDTTT. The power conversion efficiency of the PSCs based on PBDTTT‐Br25 and PBDTTT‐Br50 reaches 5.17% and 4.48%, respectively, which is improved obviously in comparison with that (4.26%) of the PSCs based on the control polymer PBDTTT. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 3123–3131