All-polymer solar cells have shown great potential as flexible and portable power generators. These devices should offer good mechanical endurance with high power-conversion efficiency for viability in commercial applications. In this work, we develop highly efficient and mechanically robust all-polymer solar cells that are based on the PBDTTTPD polymer donor and the P(NDI2HD-T) polymer acceptor. These systems exhibit high power-conversion efficiency of 6.64%. Also, the proposed all-polymer solar cells have even better performance than the control polymer-fullerene devices with phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as the electron acceptor (6.12%). More importantly, our all-polymer solar cells exhibit dramatically enhanced strength and flexibility compared with polymer/PCBM devices, with 60- and 470-fold improvements in elongation at break and toughness, respectively. The superior mechanical properties of all-polymer solar cells afford greater tolerance to severe deformations than conventional polymer-fullerene solar cells, making them much better candidates for applications in flexible and portable devices.

All-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs), consisting of conjugated polymers as both electron donor (P) and acceptor (P), have recently attracted great attention. Remarkable progress has been achieved during the past few years, with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) now approaching 8%. In this Account, we first discuss the major advantages of all-PSCs over fullerene-polymer solar cells (fullerene-PSCs): (i) high light absorption and chemical tunability of P, which affords simultaneous enhancement of both the short-circuit current density (J) and the open-circuit voltage (V), and (ii) superior long-term stability (in particular, thermal and mechanical stability) of all-PSCs due to entangled long P chains. In the second part of this Account, we discuss the device operation mechanism of all-PSCs and recognize the major challenges that need to be addressed in optimizing the performance of all-PSCs. The major difference between all-PSCs and fullerene-PSCs originates from the molecular structures and interactions, i.e., the electron transport ability in all-PSCs is significantly affected by the packing geometry of two-dimensional P chains relative to the electrodes (e.g., face-on or edge-on orientation), whereas spherically shaped fullerene acceptors can facilitate isotropic electron transport properties in fullerene-PSCs. Moreover, the crystalline packing structures of P and P at the P-P interface greatly affect their free charge carrier generation efficiencies. The design of P polymers (e.g., main backbone, side chain, and molecular weight) should therefore take account of optimizing three major aspects in all-PSCs: (1) the electron transport ability of P, (2) the molecular packing structure and orientation of P, and (3) the blend morphology. First, control of the backbone and side-chain structures, as well as the molecular weight, is critical for generating strong intermolecular assembly of P and its network, thus enabling high electron transport ability of P comparable to that of fullerenes. Second, the molecular orientation of anisotropically structured P should be favorably controlled in order to achieve efficient charge transport as well as charge transfer at the P-P interface. For instance, face-to-face stacking between P and P at the interface is desired for efficient free charge carrier generation because misoriented chains often cause an additional energy barrier for overcoming the binding energy of the charge transfer state. Third, large-scale phase separation often occurs in all-PSCs because of the significantly reduced entropic contribution by two macromolecular chains of P and P that energetically disfavors mixing. In this Account, we review the recent progress toward overcoming each recognized challenge and intend to provide guidelines for the future design of P. We believe that by optimization of the parameters discussed above the PCE values of all-PSCs will surpass the 10% level in the near future and that all-PSCs are promising candidates for the successful realization of flexible and portable power gene...

The molecular weight of a conjugated polymer is one of the key factors determining the electrical, morphological, and mechanical properties as well as its solubility in organic solvents and miscibility with other polymers. In this study, a series of semicrystalline poly[(2,5-bis(2-hexyldecyloxy)phenylene)-alt-(5,6-difluoro-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole)] (PPDT2FBT) polymers with different number-average molecular weights (M(n)'s) (PPDT2FBT(L), M(n) = 12 kg/mol; PPDT2FBT(M), M(n) = 24 kg/mol; PPDT2FBT(H), M(n) = 40 kg/mol) were synthesized, and their photovoltaic properties as electron donors for all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) with poly[[N,N'-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-napthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-diyl]-alt-5,5'-(2,2'-bithiophene)] (P(NDI2OD-T2)) acceptor were studied. The M(n) effect of PPDT2FBT on the structural, morphological, electrical, and photovoltaic properties was systematically investigated. In particular, tuning the M(n) induced dramatic effects on the aggregation behaviors of the polymers and their bulk heterojunction morphology of all-PSCs, which was thoroughly examined by grazing incident X-ray scattering, resonant soft X-ray scattering, and other microscopy measurements. High M(n) PPDT2FBT(H) promoted a strong "face-on" geometry in the blend film, suppressed the formation of an excessively large crystalline domain, and facilitated molecularly intermixed phases with P(NDI2OD-T2). Therefore, the optimized all-PSCs based on PPDT2FBT(H)/P(NDI2OD-T2) showed substantially higher hole and electron mobilities than those of PPDT2FBT(L)/P(NDI2OD-T2), leading to a power conversion efficiency exceeding 5%, which is one of the highest values for all-PSCs reported thus far.

The effectiveness of side-chain engineering is demonstrated to produce highly efficient all-polymer solar cells (efficiency of 5.96%) using a series of naphthalene diimide-based polymer acceptors with controlled side chains. The dramatic changes in the polymer packing, blend morphology, and electron mobility of all-polymer solar cells elucidate clear trends in the photovoltaic performances.

Despite the recent breakthroughs of polymer solar cells (PSCs) exhibiting a power conversion efficiency of over 17%, toxic and hazardous organic solvents such as chloroform and chlorobenzene are still commonly used in their fabrication, which impedes the practical application of PSCs. Thus, the development of eco-friendly processing methods suitable for industrial-scale production is now considered an imperative research focus. This Review provides a roadmap for the design of efficient photoactive materials that are compatible with non-halogenated green solvents (e.g., xylenes, toluene, and tetrahydrofuran). We summarize the recent development of green processing solvents and the processing methods to match with the efficient photoactive materials used in non-fullerene solar cells. We further review progress in the use of more eco-friendly solvents (i.e., water or alcohol) for achieving truly sustainable and ecofriendly PSC fabrication. For example, the concept of water-or alcohol-dispersed nanoparticles made of conjugated materials is introduced. Also, recent important progress and strategies to develop water/alcohol-soluble photoactive materials that completely eliminate the use of conventional toxic solvents are discussed. Finally, we provide our perspectives on the challenges facing the current green processing methods and materials, such as large-area coating techniques and long-term stability. We believe this Review will inform the development of PSCs that are truly clean and renewable energy sources.

We report highly efficient all-polymer solar cells with power conversion efficiencies of over 4.5% by highly intermixed blends of PTB7-Th donor and P(NDI2OD-T2) acceptor polymers. The low interfacial tension and the face-on π–π stackings of the all-polymer blends afforded desired nanophase morphology, which facilitates efficient charge transport from the active layer to each electrode. In addition, the incorporation of 1,8-diiodooctane additives was able to tune the degree of crystallinity and orientation of P(NDI2OD-T2) acceptors, resulting in remarkable enhancement of electron mobility, external quantum efficiency, and J SC values.

Conjugated polymers, in general, are unstable when exposed to air, solvent, or thermal treatment, and these challenges limit their practical applications. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop new materials or methodologies that can enable organic electronics with air stability, solvent resistance, and thermal stability. Herein, we have developed a simple but powerful approach to achieve solvent-resistant and thermally stable organic electronic devices with a remarkably improved air stability, by introducing an azide cross-linkable group into a conjugated polymer. To demonstrate this concept, we have synthesized polythiophene with azide groups attached to end of the alkyl chain (P3HT-azide). Photo-cross-linking of P3HT-azide copolymers dramatically improves the solvent resistance of the active layer without disrupting the molecular ordering and charge transport. This is the first demonstration of solvent-resistant organic transistors. Furthermore, the bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaics (BHJ OPVs) containing P3HTazide copolymers show an average efficiency higher than 3.3% after 40 h annealing at an elevated temperature of 150 °C, which represents one of the most thermally stable OPV devices reported to date. This enhanced stability is due to an in situ compatibilizer that forms at the P3HT/PCBM interface and suppresses macrophase separation. Our approach paves a way toward organic electronics with robust and stable operations.

Structural control of solubilizing side groups in fullerene-based electron acceptors is critically important to optimize their performance in bulk heterojunction (BHJ)-type polymer solar cell (PSC) devices. The structural changes of fullerene derivatives affect not only their optical and electrochemical properties but also their solubility and miscibility with electron donor polymers. Herein, we synthesized a series of o-xylenyl C60 bis-adduct (OXCBA) derivatives with different solubilizing side groups to systematically investigate the effects of fullerene derivative structures on the photovoltaic properties of PSCs. The xylenyl side groups on the OXCBA were modified to produce several different OXCBA derivatives in which the xylenyl groups were functionalized with fluorine (FXCBA), nitro (NXCBA), methoxy and bromine (BMXCBA), and phenyl groups (ACBA). End group modifications of OXCBA dramatically affect photovoltaic performance in blend films with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), resulting in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) ranging from 1.7 to 5.3%. We found that this large range in PCE values is mainly due to differences in the blend morphology and interfacial area of the P3HT:OXCBA derivative films caused by changes in the hydrophobicity of the OXCBA derivatives and their interaction with P3HT. The trend in photovoltaic performance of the different OXCBA derivatives agrees well with those of the interfacial tension, PL quenching, and exciton dissociation probability, which suggests that changes in the interaction with P3HT are largely responsible for their photovoltaic performances. Finally, the OXCBA derivatives were applied in inverted type PSC devices. We note that P3HT:OXCBA blend devices exhibited more than 5% PCE with excellent air stability, which is one of the best inverted type devices based on the P3HT polymer in a simple device architecture without any extra interlayers.