Recent progress towards fluorinated copolymers for efficient photovoltaic applications

This review paper summarizes the recent progress of highly efficient copolymers with the fluorination strategy for photovoltaic applications. We first present a brief introduction of the fundamental principles of polymer solar cells, and then the functions of fluorine atoms on the polymer donor materials. Finally, we review the research progress of the reported copolymers by classification of the fluorinated acceptor units and donor units, respectively. The resulting structure-property correlations of these copolymers are also discussed which shall certainly facilitate widespread utilization of this strategy for constructing high-performance photovoltaic copolymers in the future. (C) 2016 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.