Emerging Chemistry in Enhancing the Chemical and Photochemical Stabilities of Fused-Ring Electron Acceptors in Organic Solar Cells

The power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) has made exceptionally rapid progress in the past five years owing to the emergence of fused-ring electron acceptors (FREAs). To achieve the commercialization, it is urgent to resolve the stability issues of OCSs from materials to devices. In particular, the state-of-the-art FREAs, often synthesized by Knoevenagel condensation, generally contain two exocyclic vinyl groups (C(sic)C bond) as the conjugated bridges, which inevitably exhibit an obvious electron-deficient characteristic due to the strong push-pull electronic effect. As a result, these vinyl bridges are vulnerable to nucleophile attacking and/or photooxidation, leading to poor chemical and photochemical stabilities of FREAs that easily cause the degradation of device performance. In this perspective, an in-depth understanding of the degradation mechanism of FREAs is provided, and then effective strategies reported recently are reviewed for improving the chemical and photochemical stabilities of FREAs from interfacial engineering to molecular engineering to additive engineering. Finally, a conclusion and outlook for the future design of highly efficient and stable FREAs are also presented.

Automated summary

In the past five years, the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells has significantly improved due to the emergence of fused-ring electron acceptors. In order to achieve commercialization, it is crucial to address the stability issues of OCSs from materials to devices. The state-of-the-art FREAs, synthesized by Knoevenagel condensation, exhibit poor chemical and photochemical stabilities due to their vulnerability to nucleophile attacking and/or photooxidation.