This Review summarizes recent progress in the development of polymer solar cells. It covers the scientific origins and basic properties of polymer solar cell technology, material requirements and device operation mechanisms, while also providing a synopsis of major achievements in the field over the past few years. Potential future developments and the applications of this technology are also briefly discussed.

Polymer solar cells

Synthetic Principles for Bandgap Control in Linear pi-Conjugated Systems.

4. Survey of Novel Multiphoton Active Materials 1257 4.1. Multiphoton Absorbing Systems 1257 4.2. Organic Molecules 1257 4.3. Organic Liquids and Liquid Crystals 1259 4.4. Conjugated Polymers 1259 4.4.1. Polydiacetylenes 1261 4.4.2. Polyphenylenevinylenes (PPVs) 1261 4.4.3. Polythiophenes 1263 4.4.4. Other Conjugated Polymers 1265 4.4.5. Dendrimers 1265 4.4.6. Hyperbranched Polymers 1267 4.5. Fullerenes 1267 4.6. Coordination and Organometallic Compounds 1271 4.6.1. Metal Dithiolenes 1271 4.6.2. Pyridine-Based Multidentate Ligands 1272 4.6.3. Other Transition-Metal Complexes 1273 4.6.4. Lanthanide Complexes 1275 4.6.5. Ferrocene Derivatives 1275 4.6.6. Alkynylruthenium Complexes 1279 4.6.7. Platinum Acetylides 1279 4.7. Porphyrins and Metallophophyrins 1279 4.8. Nanoparticles 1281 4.9. Biomolecules and Derivatives 1282 5. Nonlinear Optical Characterizations of Multiphoton Active Materials 1282

Multiphoton Absorbing Materials : Molecular Designs, Characterizations, and Applications

The research on the polymer-based solar cells (PSCs) has attracted an increasing amount of attention in recent years because PSCs pose potential advantages over mainstream inorganic-based solar cells, such as significantly reduced material/fabrication costs, flexible substrates, and light weight of finished solar cells. The research community has made great progress in the field of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells since its inception in 1995. The power conversion efficiency (PCE), a key parameter to assess the performance of solar cells, has increased from 1% in the 1990s to over 8% just recently. These great advances are mainly fueled by the development of conjugated polymers used as the electron-donating materials in BHJ solar cells. In this Perspective, we first briefly review the progress on the design of conjugated polymers for polymer solar cells in the past 16 years. Since a conjugated polymer can be arbitrarily divided into three constituting components—the conjugated backbone, the si...

/pdf/rational-design-of-high-performance-conjugated-polymers-for-4cpngxv0an.pdf

Rational Design of High Performance Conjugated Polymers for Organic Solar Cells

On the basis of theoretical models and calculations, several alternating polymeric structures have been investigated to develop optimized poly(2,7-carbazole) derivatives for solar cell applications. Selected low band gap alternating copolymers have been obtained via a Suzuki coupling reaction. A good correlation between DFT theoretical calculations performed on model compounds and the experimental HOMO, LUMO, and band gap energies of the corresponding polymers has been obtained. This study reveals that the alternating copolymer HOMO energy level is mainly fixed by the carbazole moiety, whereas the LUMO energy level is mainly related to the nature of the electron-withdrawing comonomer. However, solar cell performances are not solely driven by the energy levels of the materials. Clearly, the molecular weight and the overall organization of the polymers are other important key parameters to consider when developing new polymers for solar cells. Preliminary measurements have revealed hole mobilities of about ...

Toward a rational design of poly(2,7-carbazole) derivatives for solar cells.

Alternate donor-acceptor small-band-gap semiconducting polymers; Polysquaraines and polycroconaines

Polysquaraines and polycroconaines have been synthesized. They form a new class of polymers with a small band gap, down to 0.5 eV. The small gap arises from the regular alternation of strong donor and acceptor-like moieties in a conjugated backbone.

A new class of small band gap organic polymer conductors

We report the observation of saturation with chain length of the second hyperpolarizability of a series of long, well-defined, conjugated oligothiophenes. This saturation occurs at the same length as that of the band gap and of the polarizability, and is attributed to a saturation of the effective conjugation length. Solvatochromic and thermochromic measurements indicate that conformational effects play a role.

https://pure.tue.nl/ws/files/2383688/587969.pdf

Saturation of the hyperpolarizability of oligothiophenes

The synthesis, characterization and several properties of water-soluble polysquaraine and polycroconaine are presented. The optical band gap of a film of the polycroconaine 4 amounts to 0.7 eV, equal to the photoconductivity band-gap.

Water-soluble polysquaraines and polycroconaines

Novel colourless side-chain methacrylate copolymers exhibiting relatively narrow charge-transfer bands at 335 nm and second-order optical nonlinearities up to d33= 4.3 pm V–1(at 1064 nm) have been synthesized and characterized.

H. Wynberg

Papers

Alternate donor-acceptor small-band-gap semiconducting polymers; Polysquaraines and polycroconaines

A new class of small band gap organic polymer conductors

Saturation of the hyperpolarizability of oligothiophenes

Water-soluble polysquaraines and polycroconaines

Colourless nonlinear optical D-π-A polymers with sulphones as electron acceptors