High‐Performance Long‐Term‐Stable Dopant‐Free Perovskite Solar Cells and Additive‐Free Organic Solar Cells by Employing Newly Designed Multirole π‐Conjugated Polymers

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and organic solar cells (OSCs) are promising renewable light‐harvesting technologies with high performance, but the utilization of hazardous dopants and high boiling additives is harmful to all forms of life and the environment. Herein, new multirole π‐conjugated polymers (P1–P3) are developed via a rational design approach through theoretical hindsight, further successfully subjecting them into dopant‐free PSCs as hole‐transporting materials and additive‐free OSCs as photoactive donors, respectively. Especially, P3‐based PSCs and OSCs not only show high power conversion efficiencies of 17.28% and 8.26%, but also display an excellent ambient stability up to 30 d (for PSCs only), owing to their inherent superior optoelectronic properties in their pristine form. Overall, the rational approach promises to support the development of environmentally and economically sustainable PSCs and OSCs.     

Isomery‐Dependent Miscibility Enables High‐Performance All‐Small‐Molecule Solar Cells

Nonfullerene polymer solar cells develop quickly. However, nonfullerene small‐molecule solar cells (NF‐SMSCs) still show relatively inferior performance, attributing to the lack of comprehensive understanding of the structure–performance relationship. To address this issue, two isomeric small‐molecule acceptors, NBDTP‐F_out and NBDTP‐F_in, with varied oxygen position in the benzodi(thienopyran) (BDTP) core are designed and synthesized. When blended with molecular donor BDT3TR‐SF, devices based on the two isomeric acceptors show disparate photovoltaic performance. Fabricated with an eco‐friendly processing solvent (tetrahydrofuran), the BDT3TR‐SF:NBDTP‐F_out blend delivers a high power conversion efficiency of 11.2%, ranked to the top values reported to date, while the BDT3TR‐SF:NBDTP‐F_in blend almost shows no photovoltaic response (0.02%). With detailed investigations on inherent optoelectronic processes as well as morphological evolution, this performance disparity is correlated to the interfacial tension of the two combinations and concludes that proper interfacial tension is a key factor for effective phase separation, optimal blend morphology, and superior performance, which can be achieved by the “isomerization” design on molecular acceptors. This work reveals the importance of modulating the materials miscibility by interfacial‐tension‐oriented molecular design, which provides a general guideline toward efficient NF‐SMSCs.     

All‐Solution‐Processed Metal‐Oxide‐Free Flexible Organic Solar Cells with Over 10% Efficiency

All‐solution‐processing at low temperatures is important and desirable for making printed photovoltaic devices and also offers the possibility of a safe and cost‐effective fabrication environment for the devices. Herein, an all‐solution‐processed flexible organic solar cell (OSC) using poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):poly‐(styrenesulfonate) electrodes is reported. The all‐solution‐processed flexible devices yield the highest power conversion efficiency of 10.12% with high fill factor of over 70%, which is the highest value for metal‐oxide‐free flexible OSCs reported so far. The enhanced performance is attributed to the newly developed gentle acid treatment at room temperature that enables a high‐performance PEDOT:PSS/plastic underlying substrate with a matched work function (≈4.91 eV), and the interface engineering that endows the devices with better interface contacts and improved hole mobility. Furthermore, the flexible devices exhibit an excellent mechanical flexibility, as indicated by a high retention (≈94%) of the initial efficiency after 1000 bending cycles. This work provides a simple route to fabricate high‐performance all‐solution‐processed flexible OSCs, which is important for the development of printing, blading, and roll‐to‐roll technologies.     

Carbon Nanotubes for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

As one type of emerging photovoltaic cell, dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are an attractive potential source of renewable energy due to their eco–friendliness, ease of fabrication, and cost effectiveness. However, in DSSCs, the rarity and high cost of some electrode materials (transparent conducting oxide and platinum) and the inefficient performance caused by slow electron transport, poor light‐harvesting efficiency, and significant charge recombination are critical issues. Recent research has shown that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising candidates to overcome these issues due to their unique electrical, optical, chemical, physical, as well as catalytic properties. This article provides a comprehensive review of the research that has focused on the application of CNTs and their hybrids in transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs), in semiconducting layers, and in counter electrodes of DSSCs. At the end of this review, some important research directions for the future use of CNTs in DSSCs are also provided.