Recent research progress of all-polymer solar cells based on PSMA-type polymer acceptors

All-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) have garnered significant interest due to their unique advantages, including significantly improved device stability and mechanical stretchability compared with other types of organic solar cells. Recently, all-PSCs have achieved remarkable improvements in photovoltaic performance. Crucial to this advancement is the development of polymerized small-mole-cule acceptors (PSMAs) since 2017. First, we describe the develop-ment of various polymer acceptors (PAs) and discuss the main limita-tions of these PAs used in all-PSCs. Then, we focus our discussion on the concept of PSMA and summarize the design criteria of PSMAs as well as their structure-morphology-performance relationships. Additionally, we describe some typical strategies, including molec-ular mass control, processing conditions, polymer donor selection, and ternary strategy, to modulate morphology. Relevant photophy-sics research in all-PSCs is reviewed. Finally, we provide a concise summary, propose some research directions and opinions, and high -light key issues that need to be overcome to achieve high-perfor-mance all-PSCs.

Automated summary

All-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) have attracted significant attention due to their improved device stability and mechanical stretchability compared to other organic solar cells. The development of polymerized small-mole-cule acceptors (PSMAs) since 2017 has played a crucial role in advancing all-PSCs. This review discusses the development of polymer acceptors, the concept of PSMA, design criteria, and strategies to modulate morphology in all-PSCs.