Recent advances in non-fullerene organic photovoltaics enabled by green solvent processing

Abstract

Solution-processed organic photovoltaic (OPV) as a new energy device has attracted much attention due to its huge potential in future commercial manufacturing. However, so far, most of the studies on high-performance OPV have been treated with halogenated solvents. Halogenated solvents not only pollute the environment, but are also harmful to human health, which will negatively affect the large-scale production of OPV in the future. Therefore, it is urgent to develop low-toxic or non-toxic non-halogen solvent-processable OPV. Compared with conventional fullerene OPVs, non-fullerene OPVs exist with stronger absorption, better-matched energy levels and lower energy loss. Processing photoactive layers with non-fullerenes as the acceptor material has broad potential advantages in non-halogenated solvents. This review introduces the research progress of non-fullerene OPV treated by three different kinds of green solvents as the non-halogenated and aromatic solvent, the non-halogenated and non-aromatic solvent, alcohol and water. Furthermore, the effects of different optimization strategies on the photoelectric performance and stability of non-fullerene OPV are analyzed in detail. The current optimization strategy can increase the power conversion efficiency of non-fullerene OPV processed with non-halogen solvents up to 17.33%, which is close to the performance of processing with halogen-containing solvents. Finally, the commercial potential of non-halogen solvent processing OPVs is discussed. The green solvent processing of non-fullerene-based OPVs will become a key development direction for the future of the OPV industry.