Research on organic solar cells based on perylene diimide for achieving high power conversion efficiency

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have become one of substitutes to inorganic solar cells, especially to silicon-based solar cells. Bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) OSCs, most representative OSC, which normally consist of a blend film that comprises a polymer donor well-matched with non-fullerene acceptor. Through structure design, optimal combination, relatively high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) surpass 10% were successfully implemented. Here we showed the current breakthroughs in OSCs, together with comparison between inorganic and organic materials. Then several representative small molecule acceptors based on non-fullerene material, perylene diimide (PDI), together with their current advanced application in non-fullerene OSCs are discussed. In addition to novel non-fullerene acceptors, we provided research on ratio optimization of donors and acceptors, which is beneficial for achieving high-performance BHJ OSCs. It is crucial and considerable to fabricate highly efficient OSCs under the condition of suitable donors and acceptors which may qualify for competitive photovoltaic properties, such as charge-carrier mobility and complementary absorption spectrum. Therefore, it can pave the way for realizing superior OSCs.