4 - Organic polymeric semiconductor materials for applications in photovoltaic cells

Abstract

An overview of current trends in materials for polymer photovoltaics is given herein, with emphasis paid to the semiconductors composing the active photovoltaic layer. The different cases of polymeric electron donors that have appeared in recent literature holding the most promising results are categorized in respect to their monomeric counterparts (e.g., thiophene, carbazole, isoindigo, quinoxaline). On the other hand, electron acceptors are mostly based on fullerenes functionalized with different organic parts as solubilizing and miscibility enhancing groups. Organic small molecular and polymeric electron acceptors are also presented. Finally, hybrid systems containing both polymeric and fullerene parts are described.