Towards Commercial Photovoltaic Materials: A New Class of Polymeric Donor Materials with Low Cost and High Efficiency

High efficiency, high stability and low cost are the three key factors for polymer solar cell (PSC) that determine whether this technology could be commercialized. In recent years, the power conversion efficiency of PSC has reached a high level over 17%. However, the high efficiency devices are realized mainly based on photovoltaic donor and acceptor materials with complex structures and high cost, so it becomes a major challenge to reduce the cost of photovoltaic materials for the commercialization of PSC. Since 2018, a research group of Professor Li Yongfang from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences have reported a series of photovoltaic polymer donors based on poly(thiophene-quinoxaline) derivatives, showing high efficiency, high stability and low cost for potential commercial application. Based on the synthesis of new polymers, they also discussed the effect of fluorination and methylation on the energy level and photovoltaic performance of new polymer donors. The works provide a new concept for the design of polymer donors with potential for commercial application.