Eco-friendly solution processing of all-polymer solar cells: Recent advances and future perspective

Abstract

All-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) exhibit great potentials in commercial applications. All-PSCs have observed steady performance gains with power conversion efficiency now reaching over 17% in the open literature. However, the current processing of all-PSCs relies predominantly on toxic, chlorinated solvents in moisture-free environments, representing a significant barrier for their commercialization due to the added costs to handle and dispose of such solvents. There is thus an urgent need for safe, environmentally benign, and sustainable ink-based processing methods to produce all-PSC devices reliably and reproducibly in ambient air. In this perspective, fundamental insights on the interplay between all-polymer blend morphologies and eco-friendly solvents are provided. Also, we discuss the recent successes of the green processing methods to manipulate the photoactive morphologies for high-efficiency all-PSCs. In the end, we provide an outlook on future challenges and opportunities of eco-friendly solvents processed all-PSCs for large-scale manufacturing.