In this presentation, the fundamentals and recent progress of polymer solar cell (PSC) materials and devices will be reviewed. Particularly, we will present the design, synthesis and characterization of a series of new low bandgap polymers specifically for single junction and tandem polymer solar cells. These polymers have a backbone based on the benzodithiophene (BDT) and diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) units. Alkylthienyl and alkylphenyl moieties were incorporated onto the BDT unit to form BDTT and BDTP units, respectively; a furan moiety was incorporated onto the DPP unit in place of thiophene to form the FDPP unit. Low bandgap polymers (bandgap = 1.4-1.5 eV) were prepared using BDTT, BDTP, FDPP and DPP units via Stille-Coupling polymerization. In the single-layer photovoltaic device, they showed power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of ~6%. When the polymers were applied to tandem solar cells, PCEs closing to 9% were reached, demonstrating their great potential for high efficiency tandem polymer solar cells. Finally, we will look into the potential of graphene to be used as highly transparent electrodes or buffer layers in the PSC devices.

Recent progress in polymer solar cells and tandem polymer solar cells

244th National Meeting (2012)

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