Starting

Energy demand is therefore increasing fast as to meet the requirements of growing population in the
world .Considering renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind energy, hydropower and
geothermal, is critically important in this sense as they are ecofriendly. (Solar energy for future world: -
A review

Fossil fuels (non-renewable energy sources) cause greenhouse effect which ultimately leads to global
warming. (L. Chapman, Transport and climate change: a review, Journal of transport geography, 15
(2007) 354- 367.)

Energy shortage is one of the most challenging issues in present age. The non-renewable energy sources
including oil and gas are depleted fastly. On the other hand, hydro-power (energy comes from water),
wind power (energy comes from moving air), biomass (energy comes from organic matters) and solar
cells (energy comes from sunlight) are some renewable energy sources that may be used as an
alternative energy sources. (J. Twidell, T. Weir, Renewable energy resources, 3rd ed., Routledge, Oxon
and New York, 2015)

Solar cells have gained significant attention of research community to convert sunlight into electricity.
During last two decades, development of solar cell materials are getting immense consideration due to
low cost, light weight, low toxicity and facile solution processing. (Enhancement in Photovoltaic
Properties of N,N-diethylaniline based Donor Materials by Bridging Core Modifications for Efficient Solar
Cells.)

Fullerene

Fullerene-based solar cells initially achieved a high level in the market of solar cells for more than 20
years. (T. Liu, A. Troisi, Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 1038.)

The ratio by which a solar cell can convert an incident radiative power Pγ to electrical power defines
the power conversion efficiency (PCE), PCE = Jsc × Voc × FF / Pγ, which increases with the short-circuit
current Jsc, the open-circuit voltage Voc, and the fill factor FF of the cell. (The Origin of Photocurrent in
Fullerene-Based Solar)

Unfortunately, some bad properties, such as poor accepting power, weak light absorption in the visible
range, and low tunability energy level, poor morphology and high prices restricted its further growth in
the solar cells field. (Designing spirobifullerene core based three-dimensional cross shape acceptor
materials with promising photovoltaic properties for high-efficiency organic solar cells.)

Silicon

In recent times, there has been a significant increase in the use of metal oxides, fluorides, sulphides,
and organic materials as carrier selective heterocontacts for crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV)
devices. (Stable Dopant-Free Asymmetric Heterocontact Silicon Solar Cells with Efficiencies Above 20%)
The world PV market is largely dominated (above 90%) by wafer-based silicon solar cells, due to several
factors: silicon has a bandgap within the optimal range for efficient PV conversion, it is the second most
abundant material on the earth’s crust, it is nontoxic and its technology is well mastered by chemical
and semiconductor industries. (Silicon solar cells: toward the efficiency limits)

Feasible silicon based third generation solar cell approaches can base on silicon nanostructures such as
silicon nanowires (SiNWs) also known as nanowhiskers. (Silicon Nanowire-Based Solar Cells on Glass:
Synthesis, Optical Properties, and Cell Parameters

The viability of thin film photovoltaics using hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and silicon
germanium (a-SiGe:H) alloys have been demonstrated not only in the laboratory (Amorphous and
nanocrystalline silicon-based multi-junction solar cells

However, light absorption, electron−hole pair separation, surface/interface recombination, and surface
barrier (induced by the Gaussian distribution of implanted ions) are four main factors limiting the
efficiency of silicon-based solar cells. (Enhancing the Efficiency of Silicon-Based Solar Cells by the Piezo-
Phototronic Effect

Organic

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have gained huge attention due to their unique qualities such as lightweight,
transparency, flexibility and low-cost. (S. Günes, H. Neugebauer and N. S. Sariciftci, Chem. Rev., 2007,
107, 1324-1338

various advantages of organic solar cells such as tunable energy levels, light weight, easy processability
and low cost have made them efficient alternative devices. (Designing triazatruxene-based donor
materials with promising photovoltaic parameters for organic solar cells

Organic cells are flexible enough to be bent and=or rolled. Power conversion efficiency for organic thin
film solar cells is lower than that of inorganic solar cells but they can become competitive in relation to
the cost, fabrication simplicity, and novel applications. (Organic Solar Cells: A Review of Materials,
Limitations, and Possibilities for Improvement

The highest reported power conversion efficiency (PCE) for an OPV device is 12%,5 which is based on a
small-molecule system that has already approached the benchmark what is deemed to be required for
commercialisation. At present, OPV devices exhibiting the highest performance efficiency (PCE) are
based on the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) type, in which a blend composed of an electron-donor material
(small-molecule) and an electron-acceptor fullerene material are employed to form an active
photovoltaic layer. (Open circuit voltage of organic solar cells: an in-depth review

Inorganic
Dye sensitized

The metal-free organic dyes have high molar absorptivity, design flexibility compared to the ruthenium-
based (Ru) dyes. (open-shell donor−π−acceptor conjugated metal-free dyes for dye-sensitized solar
cells).

Metal-free organic dyes play a pivotal role in light harvesting and electron injection thereby in achieving
high efficiencies. (Bulky Phenanthroimidazole-Phenothiazine D-#-A Based Organic Sensitizers for
Application in Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

The DSSC was first reported by Grätzel and co-workers in 1991 using a Ru(II) polyridyl complex as
sensitizer and I- /I3 - redox couple with an efficiency of 7.1%. (. O’Regan, B.; Grätzel, M. A Low-Cost,
High-Efficiency Solar Cell Based on DyeSensitized Colloid

Non fullerene

Further innovation in the field of NFAs comes with the development of fused ring electron acceptors
(ITIC) in 2015. (] Y. Lin, J. Wang, Z.G. Zhang, H. Bai, Y. Li, D. Zhu, X. Zhan, An electron acceptor challenging
fullerenes for efficient polymer solar cells, Adv. Mater. 27 (2015) 1170–1174)

There are many non-fullerene acceptors derived from diketopyrrolopyrrole which are used in organic
solar cells. These acceptors have A-D-A designed principle. The molecules designed on this principle
have absorption in the red region of the visible light, in addition to different available energy levels.
(Development of fullerene free acceptors molecules for organic solar cells: A step way forward toward
efficient organic solar cells)

Non-fullerene acceptors have unique properties such as easy synthesis, quiet toxicity, fine absorption
spectra, and low level of highest occupied molecular orbital large area of fabrication, transparency and
show high power conversion efficiencies. (In silico designing of efficient C-shape non-fullerene acceptor
molecules having quinoid structure with remarkable photovoltaic properties for high-performance
organic solar cells

To further improve the efficiency of NF-PSCs and overcome the fundamental compromise between the
JSC and VOC output, it is important to develop an ideal wide-bandgap (WBG) polymer with
complementary absorption in the short wavelength region and a deeper highest occupied molecular
orbital (HOMO) energy level. WBG polymer donors better match the NFAs, thus maximizing the JSC of
the devices. (wide-bandgap donor polymers based on a dicyanodivinyl indacenodithiophene unit for
non-fullerene polymer solar cells

My Question

Introducing a suitable electron-withdrawing groups onto the main and the side chain of non-fullerene
acceptors (NFAs) is an effective strategy to downshift the HOMO level while keeping the wide bandgap
(WBG).