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Progress of the key materials for organic solar cells

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Abstract

Organic solar cells have attracted academic and industrial interests due to the advantages like lightweight, flexibility and roll-to-roll fabrication. Nowadays, 18% power conversion efficiency has been achieved in the state-of-the-art organic solar cells. The recent rapid progress in organic solar cells relies on the continuously emerging new materials and device fabrication technologies, and the deep understanding on film morphology, molecular packing and device physics. Donor and acceptor materials are the key materials for organic solar cells since they determine the device performance. The past 25 years have witnessed an odyssey in developing high-performance donors and acceptors. In this review, we focus on those star materials and milestone work, and introduce the molecular structure evolution of key materials. These key materials include homopolymer donors, D-A copolymer donors, A-D-A small molecular donors, fullerene acceptors and nonfullerene acceptors. At last, we outlook the challenges and very important directions in key materials development.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51773045, 21772030, 51922032, 21961160720).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. High-Technology Research and Development Center (MoST), Beijing, 100044, China

    Yang Tong

  2. National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Zuo Xiao & Liming Ding

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Martensstrasse 7, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Xiaoyan Du

  4. CSIRO Manufacturing, Bag 10, Clayton South, Victoria, 3169, Australia

    Chuantian Zuo

  5. Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China

    Yuelong Li

  6. School of Chemical Engineering, Guizhou Institute of Technology, Guiyang, 550003, China

    Menglan Lv

  7. School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Yongbo Yuan

  8. Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Chenyi Yi

  9. School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China

    Feng Hao

  10. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650000, China

    Yong Hua

  11. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Ting Lei

  12. School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Qianqian Lin

  13. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Kuan Sun

  14. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Dewei Zhao

  15. State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Chunhui Duan & Hin-Lap Yip

  16. State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Xiangfeng Shao

  17. Department of Physics, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK

    Wei Li

  18. Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Zhengguo Xiao

  19. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China

    Bin Zhang

  20. Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping, 58183, Sweden

    Qingzhen Bian

  21. Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117574, Singapore

    Yuanhang Cheng

  22. School of Chemistry, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Shengjian Liu

  23. Institute for Energy Research, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Ming Cheng

  24. School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Zhiwen Jin

  25. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Shangfeng Yang

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  1. Yang Tong
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  2. Zuo Xiao
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  27. Liming Ding
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Correspondence to Shengjian Liu, Ming Cheng, Zhiwen Jin, Shangfeng Yang or Liming Ding.

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Tong, Y., Xiao, Z., Du, X. et al. Progress of the key materials for organic solar cells. Sci. China Chem. 63, 758–765 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9726-0

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