Yue Qihui, Liu Wuyue, Zhu Xiaozhang
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.
J Am Chem Soc. 2020 Jul 8;142(27):11613-11628. doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c04084. Epub 2020 Jun 16.
The use of photovoltaic technologies has been regarded as a promising approach for converting solar energy to electricity and mitigating the energy crisis, and among these, organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have attracted broad interest because of their solution processability, flexibility, light weight, and potential for large-area processing. The development of OPV materials, especially electron acceptors, has been one of the focuses in recent years. Compared with fullerene derivates, n-type non-fullerene molecules have some unique merits, such as synthetic simplicity, high tunability of the absorption and energy levels, and small energy loss. In the last 5 years, organic solar cells based on n-type non-fullerene molecules have achieved a significant breakthrough in the power conversion efficiency from approximately 4% to over 17%, which is superior to those of fullerene-based solar cells; meanwhile, n-type non-fullerene molecules have created brand new opportunities for the application of OPVs in some special situations. This Perspective analyzes the key design strategies of high-performance n-type molecular photovoltaic materials and highlights instructive examples of their various applications, including in ternary and tandem solar cells, high-efficiency semitransparent solar cells for power-generating building facades and windows, and indoor photovoltaics for driving low-power-consumption devices. Moreover, to accelerate the pace toward commercialization of OPVs, the existing challenges and future directions are also reviewed from the perspectives of efficiency, stability, and large-area fabrication.
光伏技术的应用被视为将太阳能转化为电能并缓解能源危机的一种有前景的方法，其中，有机光伏（OPV）因其可溶液加工性、柔韧性、重量轻以及大面积加工潜力而引起了广泛关注。OPV材料的发展，尤其是电子受体，一直是近年来的重点之一。与富勒烯衍生物相比，n型非富勒烯分子具有一些独特的优点，如合成简单、吸收和能级的高可调性以及小的能量损失。在过去的5年里，基于n型非富勒烯分子的有机太阳能电池在功率转换效率方面取得了重大突破，从约4%提高到超过17%，优于基于富勒烯的太阳能电池；同时，n型非富勒烯分子为OPV在一些特殊情况下的应用创造了全新的机会。这篇综述分析了高性能n型分子光伏材料的关键设计策略，并突出了它们各种应用的指导性实例，包括在三元和串联太阳能电池、用于发电建筑外墙和窗户的高效半透明太阳能电池以及用于驱动低功耗设备的室内光伏方面的应用。此外，为了加快OPV商业化的步伐，还从效率、稳定性和大面积制造的角度对现有的挑战和未来方向进行了综述。
