World’s energy demand is increasing steadily as a result of enormously growing population.

i
Fossil fuels contribute to the greenhouse effect, which results in global warming. ii Also non-
renewable energy sources, such as oil and gas, are rapidly depleting. Hence solar energy (energy
derived from sunlight) is an example of renewable energy source that might be utilized as
alternative energy source.iii Solar cells, which turn sunlight into energy, have piqued the interest
of the scientific community. Solar cell materials got famous due to their cheap rates, light
weight, less toxicity, and ease of solution formation. iv The photoelectric effect happens when
sunlight is transformed directly into electricity and generates energy in the solar cells.v
The first solar cell manufactured in 1941, was silicon solar cell. vi Mono crystalline silicon (m-Si)
and polycrystalline silicon (p-Si) also known as multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) cells are silicon-
based cells.vii Polycrystalline cells are better than mono crystalline cells, consuming less energy
during their life cycle, have a shorter energy return time, a smaller Greenhouse impact, and need
less energy to produce than mono crystalline cells.viii After that wafer-based silicon solar cells
dominated the global photovoltaic (PV) industry. Silicon has an ideal band gap within the best
range for PV conversion and second most plentiful material on the earth's crust having low toxic
properties.ix Metal oxides, fluorides, sulphides, and organic compounds are increasingly being
used as carrier selective heterocontacts in crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) systems. x
Silicon nanostructures, like silicon nanowires (SiNWs), also termed as nanowhiskers, can be
used to make viable third generation solar cells to achieve better power conversion
efficiency.xiLight absorption, electron hole pair separation, surface/interface recombination, and
surface barrier (caused by the Gaussian distribution of implanted ions) are four major variables
that restrict the efficiency of silicon-based solar cells.xii
Grätzel and colleagues described the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) in1991, utilizing a
ruthenium Ru (II) polyridyl complex as a sensitizer and an I-/I3 redox pair with a 7.1%
efficiency.xiii .The dye is a very essential part of the DSSC because it serves two purposes: light
catching and starting the electrical current in the cell. xiv A photo electrode is nano crystalline
sheet, part of DSSC, produced by a wide bandgap semiconductor, used to load dyes, accepting,
and transferring electrons. Best example of photo electrode is TiO 2 because of low price, less
toxicity and better stability.xv In case of TiO2 photo anode, electron transfer mechanism is very
low due to less mobility of electrons although having better photovoltaic power conversion
efficiency (PCE).xvi
The open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current density(Jsc), and photoelectric conversion
efficiency (η) of DSSCs may all be improved using graphene composited TiO 2 in DSSC.
Furthermore, the DSSC with the best graphene composited TiO2 sheet has a η of 7.02±0.06
percent, which is massively greater than the pure TiO2 DSSC.xvii Organometallic dyes such as
ruthenium and porphyrins, have high value of η in DSSCs but practically use of these is a bit
difficult due to manufacturing and purification problems.xviii Molar absorptivity and design
flexibility of metal free organic dyes is much superior to ruthenium (Ru) based dyes.xix
Organic solar cells (OSCs) are popular due to their lightness, transparency, flexibility, and low
cost.xx OSC are made to be bent or rolled and its PCE is less than inorganic solar cells but can be
competitive in case of simplicity and novel applications.xxi
 OSCs have a place with the class of PV devices known as excitonic sun based cells, which are
described by unequivocally bound electron-opening sets (excitons) that are framed after
excitation with light.xxii A critical PV parameter is fill factor (FF) of OSCs that is solely
responsible for effectiveness of charge production and collection, performing a key role in
PCE.xxiii
Bulk hetero junction (BHJ) based OCS have highest PCE among all organic photovoltaic cells
(OPVC) and the maximum recorded PCE for OPV device is 12%, consisting of small molecule
system. BHJ is combination of electron donor that is small molecule, and electron acceptor
comprising of fullerene based component. Both electron donor and electron acceptor develop an
active PV layer.xxiv Some of OSCs have drawback of lower PCE values and can be achieved to
higher rates when some proper conjugated dye is incorporated. For example BHJ based OSC
consisting of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) :  -phenyl-C(61)butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)
coated film have PCE of 4 to 5% but it gained photo current improved by a factor 3,7 after
addition of  9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA), a conjugated dye.xxv Processable green solvent OPV
devices are a better step to commercial industries with PCE of 9% having less cost production
and more power ratio.xxvi
Fullerene-based solar cells obtained a better fame in the progress of solar cells for more than 20
years.xxvii Fullerene based solar cells constitute of three parts named as blend of semi-conducting
polymer for function of electron donor (D), fullerene derivative as electron acceptor (A), and
hole extracting layer (HEL) and electron extracting layer (EEL). xxviii Fullerene-based perovskite
solar cells (PSCs) are the latest form of photovoltaic cell and got popular due to better
proficiency, low production costs and easy way of fabrication. The general formula of perovskite
is ABX3, where A is monovalent cation, methylammonium (MA) or formamidinium (FA), B is
Pb (II) and X represent usually halogen.xxix
Optimization in fabrication and new donor improvement enhanced the PCE of fullerene-based
solution organic solar cells up to 12%.xxx The ratio of incident radioactive power to electrical
power obtained by solar cell is called power conversion efficiency (PCE). Mathematically, PCE
= Jsc Voc FF/ Pγ , where FF is the fill factor and Jsc and Voc are the short circuit current density and
open circuit voltage respectively.xxxi PCE as well as demand of fullerene based solar cells is
limited due to unfavorable properties such as poor morphology, less light absorption mechanism,
high market rates and lower tenability. Therefore further improvement needed and growth of
such solar cells retarded.xxxii
Non-fullerene OSCs (NF-OSCs) have demonstrated consistent efficiency xxxiii and termed as
fullerene-free solar cells or “all polymer” solar cells.xxxiv Improvement in the field of non-
fullerene acceptors (NFAs) aroused with the formation of fused ring electron acceptors in
2015.xxxv OSCs have utilized many non-fullerene acceptors usually obtained from
diketopyrrolopyrrole. Such acceptors work on the principle of A-D-A design. The molecules
designed on basis of such principle work well in red region of visible light. xxxvi NFAs are
extensively used due to favorable properties such as minute toxicity, clear absorption spectrum,
low level of highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMO), easy fabrication, high transparency
and highest PCE values.xxxvii NF-OSCs are categorized into two main classes that are named as
small molecular acceptor (SMA) solar cells and polymer solar cells.xxxviii
In NF-OSCs, single-junction polymer donor: NFA solar cells now have PCEs above 14%,
surpassing fullerene OSCs, which have the greatest PCE of 11.7% xxxix Efficiency of NF-OSCs
reached up to 17% due to improved light harvesting ability of OSCs in the presence of PM1
polymer which was synthesized by incorporating 20% of thiophene-thiazolothiazole (TTz) basic
unit into backbone of PM6 polymer to obtain D-A 1-D-A2-type.xl Solar cells having poly (3-
hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with non-fullerene acceptor (rhodanine-benzothiadiazole-coupled
indacenodithiophene, IDTBR) loses 5% of power conversion efficiency (PCE) during 2000 h.
This was less than 34% of PCE which was due to [6, 6]-Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester
(PCBM)-based solar cells.xli Planar or non-planar geometry of NFAs molecules influence the
performance of device.xlii It is crucially important to synthesize an ideal wide band gap (WBG)
polymer having maximum absorption in the narrow wavelength region and deeper HOMO
energy level. WBG polymers have the best resemblance with the NFAs, enhancing the J sc of the
devices. Latest research has shown that placing appropriate electron-withdrawing groups across
the main and the side chain of NFAs is a fruitful strategy to downshift the HOMO level while
keeping the wide WBG.xliii
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