Abstract
This review provides a current status report of the various n-type polymer acceptors for use as active materials in organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). The polymer acceptors are divided into four categories. The first section of this review focuses on rylene diimide-based polymers, including perylene diimide, naphthalene diimide, and dithienocoronene diimide-based polymers. The high electron mobility and good stability of rylene diimides make them suitable for use as polymer acceptors in OPVs. The second section deals with fluorene and benzothiadiazole-based polymers such as poly(9,9’-dioctylfluorene-co-benzothiadiazole), and the ensuing section focuses on the cyano-substituted polymer acceptors. Cyano-poly(phenylenevinylene) and poly(3-cyano-4-hexylthiophene) have been used as acceptors in OPVs and exhibit high electron affinity arising from the electron-withdrawing cyano groups in the vinylene group of poly(phenylenevinylene) or the thiophene ring of polythiophene. Lastly, a number of other electron-deficient groups such as thiazole, diketopyrrolopyrrole, and oxadiazole have also been introduced onto polymer backbones to induce n-type characteristics in the polymer. Since the first report on all-polymer solar cells in 1995, the best power conversion efficiency obtained with these devices to date has been 3.45%. The overall trend in the development of n-type polymer acceptors is presented in this review.
Highlights
The thrust towards energy conservation has fuelled intensive research into the development of alternative energy sources
This review focused on various n-type polymers for use as acceptors in organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs)
The polymer acceptors have been utilized in all-polymer solar cells with various polymer donors
Summary
The thrust towards energy conservation has fuelled intensive research into the development of alternative energy sources. Various polymeric and small-molecule electron donor and acceptor materials have been synthesized and developed to achieve high-efficiency OPV cells, with. The development of donor materials for OPVs has mainly focused on the syntheses of low-band-gap conjugated materials composed of electron-rich and electron-deficient repeating units (e.g., D–A type) for efficient absorption of the solar spectrum. Based on this synthetic design rule, a number of low-band-gap conjugated polymers (optical energy band-gap, Eg
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