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  • Review Article
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Next-generation organic photovoltaics based on non-fullerene acceptors

Abstract

Over the past three years, a particularly exciting and active area of research within the field of organic photovoltaics has been the use of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). Compared with fullerene acceptors, NFAs possess significant advantages including tunability of bandgaps, energy levels, planarity and crystallinity. To date, NFA solar cells have not only achieved impressive power conversion efficiencies of ~13–14%, but have also shown excellent stability compared with traditional fullerene acceptor solar cells. This Review highlights recent progress on single-junction and tandem NFA solar cells and research directions to achieve even higher efficiencies of 15–20% using NFA-based organic photovoltaics are also proposed.

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Fig. 1: Introduction to OPVs.
Fig. 2
Fig. 3: Single-junction solar cells with fullerene acceptors or NFAs.
Fig. 4: Tandem solar cells with fullerene acceptors or NFAs.
Fig. 5: 2D mapping graphs of the future efficiency of tandem NFA solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

Y.Y. acknowledges the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) (FA2386-15-1-4108), Office of Naval Research (ONR) (N00014-14-1-0648), National Science Foundation (NSF) (ECCS-1509955) and UC-Solar Program (MRPI 328368) for financial support. X.Z. acknowledges the National Science Foundation China (NSFC) (51761165023, 21734001) for financial support. G.L. acknowledges the Project of Strategic Importance provided by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (1-ZE29) for financial support. All authors acknowledge N. De Marco for help with English language editing.

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Correspondence to Gang Li, Xiaowei Zhan or Yang Yang.

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Cheng, P., Li, G., Zhan, X. et al. Next-generation organic photovoltaics based on non-fullerene acceptors. Nature Photon 12, 131–142 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-018-0104-9

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