Next Energy 2 (2024) 100085

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Next Energy
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Research article

Organic solar cells developments: What’s next?

Mingpeng Li a, b, Feng He a, b, *
a
Shenzhen Grubbs Institute and Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
b
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The research of organic solar cells (OSCs) has made great progress, mainly attributed to the invention of new
Organic solar cells active layer materials and device engineering. In this comment, we focused on A–D–A type molecules and device
Efficiency engineering, and summarized the recent developments and future challenges from the view point of chemists,
Stability
including power conversion efficiencies, stability, engineering and commercialization. Meanwhile, we analyzed
Device engineering
the challenges we are facing for the further development of OSCs for their commercialization. Some strategies
Commercialization
and designs adopted by researchers to face these challenges are also introduced. Finally, we offer our recom­
mendations for the next research direction in this field and aim to provide useful reference and inspiration from
different aspects.

As one of the most promising technologies for clean energy har­
vesting, owing to the merits of lightweight, flexibility and semi­
transparency, OSCs are good complementary to crystalline silicon (c-Si)
and perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Over the past decades, tremendous
efforts have been devoted to OSCs, which have led to power conversion
efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 19% for single-junction cells and over 20%
for tandem structures. The photoactive layer is commonly composed of a
bulk–heterojunction (BHJ) blend of electron donors and acceptors. In
contrast to fullerene acceptors, the chemical structures and electron
affinities of non–fullerene acceptors (NFAs) can be varied over a large
range. NFAs can not only broaden the absorption in the visi­
ble–near–infrared (NIR) region but also adjust the energy level align­
ments of the devices to achieve suitable energy offsets and maintain
small voltage losses (Vloss ). In addition, the crystallinity as well as the
solubility could be modulated by molecular design to realize the donor/
acceptor compatibility and good morphology. To date, many successful
NFAs featured with A–D–A skeletons, such as ITIC [1] and Y6 [2], have
been widely studied in OSCs. Due to their superior optical and physi­
cochemical properties, the bottleneck of fullerene–based device has
completely break through. For the moment, significant progresses have
been achieved as a result of efforts on device engineering, structure
modification, and morphological optimization [3,4]. However, the
performance of OSCs still lags behind that of inorganic solar cells. There
is much room for further improvement of OSCs toward commercial
applications. Compatibility between donors and acceptors, active layer
morphology control, and device engineering are all the key to obtaining
high-performance OSCs device.
In this comment, we enumerated some challenges for further
development and prospective commercialization of OSCs and gave our
suggestions. A schematic of these challenges and the possible focus of
next-stage research as follows: (1) Although impressive PCEs have been
made, it still lags behind that of c–Si and PSCs, of which PCEs have
surpass 25%; (2) Most of the OSCs have been demonstrated limited
stability and short lifetime, which are greatly correlated with the
resulting device stability and necessarily explored toward industrial
application; (3) In the process of commercialization, large–area OSCs
modules, flexibility, and transparency are vital indicators for investors
to consider the prospects of photovoltaic applications. In addition, the
cost of materials is also a factor to be considered in the near future. These
problems and challenges mentioned above are the main barriers to the
accessibility of OSCs, and the majority of researchers must design and
develop new active layer materials and device processes from these
perspectives. Based on this, we wrote this short comment in the hope of
pushing the field forward.
1. Efficiency
In order to improve the PCE, three photovoltaic parameters, namely,
the open-circuit voltage (Voc ), short-circuit current density (Jsc ) and fill
factor (FF), should be at a good level simultaneously, as shown in Fig. 1.
As far as the current study goes, finding ways to reduce energy loss (Eloss )
to increase Voc is the key to improving the efficiency of the final OSC

* Corresponding author at: Shenzhen Grubbs Institute and Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
E-mail address: hef@sustech.edu.cn (F. He).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nxener.2023.100085
Received 7 September 2023; Received in revised form 23 October 2023; Accepted 21 November 2023
Available online 16 December 2023
2949-821X/© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M. Li and F. He Next Energy 2 (2024) 100085

device. additive or the third component strategy into improving the morphology
of the active layer to reduce the Enon−
loss
rad
. All in all, in order to reduce Eloss
1.1. Open-circuit voltage and further improve device performance, two aspects of active layer
material design and device engineering can be combined. Based on this,
In general, Voc is mainly determined by the highest occupied mo­ we recently have introduced chlorine-mediated strategy into NFAs by
lecular orbital (HOMO) energy of the donor and the lowest unoccupied end-group engineering, which has proved positive effects on the energy
molecular orbital (LUMO) energy of the acceptor. In terms of material levels, molecular packing behavior, active layer morphology and energy
selection, it is likely to obtain a higher Voc by matching the donor with a loss [8]. For example, two isomeric acceptors, ITIC–2Cl–δ and
deeper HOMO energy to the acceptor with a shallower LUMO energy. ITIC–2Cl–γ, were synthesized. ITIC–2Cl–γ has a lower HOMO, higher
For donors, the introduction of halogen atoms with electron- LUMO and slight blue-shifted absorption compared with ITIC–2Cl–δ.
withdrawing property can downshift the HOMO level of the corre­ Meanwhile, ITIC–2Cl–γ showed better planarity, shorter π-π packing
sponding materials, such as -PBDB-T and -PBDB-TF [5]. Recently, we distance and formed a three-dimensional (3D) network farmwork,
have devoted ourselves to introducing and developing which was beneficial for multidirectional charge transfer. While
chlorine-mediated strategy into donor materials. Due to its larger atomic ITIC–2Cl–δ only displayed a linear packing structure. Finally,
radius and electronegativity, Cl affects the planarity and the stacking ITIC–2Cl–γ–based device showed a higher PCE of 13.03% and better
behavior of molecules, and further influence charge transfer in devices. device stability [9].
These results showed that the vacant 3d orbit of Cl has the ability to
accommodate electron pairs or electrons, which allows formation of 1.2. Short-circuit current density
noncovalent interactions such as Cl⋅⋅⋅S or Cl⋅⋅⋅π, enhancing the crystal­
linity, and also reducing the energy levels of materials, giving a higher The increment of Jsc is closely related to the light-harvesting ability
Voc [6]. (absorption intensity and range), exciton dissociation probability,
For another, scientists are trying their best to reduce the Eloss through charge transportation and charge collection efficiency of the active
molecular design and device engineering. Compared to those of c-Si and materials. The design and synthesis of materials with high molar ab­
sorption coefficient and excellent NIR light harvesting capability is
PSCs, non-radiative energy loss (Enon− loss
rad
) in OSCs is much higher than
indispensable, including better electron-transporting capacity. Based on
0.2 eV, resulting from the intrinsic properties of organic compounds,
the absorption spectra of existing acceptors, it is said that a further red-
which is attributed to the fact that the Enon− rad
increases with decreasing
loss shift of about 20–40 nm is required to obtain higher performance OSCs,
bandgap energy. Thus, large Enon−
loss
rad
must be suppressed to reach such a without the damage of Voc [10]. Charge recombination, including
great target. According to the available research results, NFAs with rigid, trap-assisted and bi-molecular recombination, is also a disadvantage to
fused-ring symmetric skeleton always possess lower reorganization en­ cut down. In order to realize the complementary absorption of vision
ergy. On the other hand, the design and development of more suitable and NIR spectrum between donor and acceptor materials, we have
donors can also reduce the Enon−
loss
rad
. To the best of our knowledge, the designed and synthesized many light-harvesting materials. For polymer
Eloss in OSCs can be reduced to 0.45 eV and Enon−loss
rad
can go down to donors, we mainly modified the most used D unit, Benzo [1,2-b:4,
0.17 eV [7]. Additionally, reducing the Eloss of devices can also be done 5-b′]-dithiophene (BDT) by the chlorine-mediated strategy and obtained
from the point of view of device engineering. Researchers adopted many donors with excellent properties [6,11]. Especially, a series of

Fig. 1. The diagram of organic solar cells and some challenges for further development.

2
M. Li and F. He
efficient acceptors with 3D network packing structures were discovered
and developed through chlorine substitution on IDT– or Y–skeletons,
which employed better light absorption ability and morphology, thus,
more conducive to higher Jsc s [9,12,13]. The thickness of active layers
also has an effect on the Jsc s of the-based device and need be investigated
systematically. In addition, ternary, additives, annealing treatment and
interface layer modification are also efficient measurements to obtain
superior Jscs, which will be discussed below.
The ternary strategy, which can provide similar advantage to that of
the tandem cell but in a single-junction structure, has been proved to be
a simple and effective approach to further boost the PCE. The third
component, either as a guest donor or acceptor, plays a vital role in
optimizing the morphology, reducing the Eloss , and promoting charge
transfer [14–16]. Some essential selection criteria for the appropriate
third component that should be considered are: (1) complementary
absorption with the host binary blend to improve light utilization; (2)
good compatibility and miscibility with the donor or acceptor in the host
binary to modulate the bulk morphology and enhance the molecular
packing; (3) higher (lower) LUMO (HOMO) levels than the host acceptor
(donor) to enhance the Voc of the OSCs; (4) beneficial for alleviating
charge traps and suppressing charge recombination. However, it is
difficult to meet all the above-mentioned criteria simultaneously. At
present, most of OSCs devices with PCEs more than 19% are constructed
based on the ternary strategy. In addition to the continuously develop­
ment of novel photoactive materials, fine-tune the micro-structure
morphology and mesoscopic aggregation state of active layer are
crucial for further exploiting the potential performance of specific active
layers [17].
Fig. 2. The themes and challenges we are facing and the key factors to commercialization.
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Next Energy 2 (2024) 100085
1.3. Morphology
The quality of active layer is related to the distribution and molecular
stacking of the blends, which is more complicated than that in PSCs.
Accordingly, numerous strategies have been proposed to enhance the
crystallinity and manipulate the phase separation behavior to enhance
the photovoltaic performance. Factors that ultimately affect the process
and quality of film formation include solvents, ratio of D/A ratio, solvent
additive, a third component, and various post-treatment methods. These
strategies that affect the FF are numerous and complicated, making the
FF the most difficult to predict and regulate among the three parameters.
From literatures reported so far, FFs of most of the reported current
record-high efficiency OSCs have surpassed 80%, falling behind that of
c–Si- and PSCs–based devices (>85%).
Generally speaking, fiber-like domains with proper sizes have been
proven to effectively facilitate charge transport in OSCs, which requires
to take into full consideration of the miscibility and crystallinity of
materials, to ensure the formation of preferable phase separation
morphology. Device engineering process are very important to form an
ideal morphology of active layers. Film forming technologies, including
BHJ, planar heterojunction (PHJ), and layer–by–layer (LBL), can be the
choice for obtaining high performance devices. Different from the above
methods, we developed the quasi–planar heterojunction (Q–PHJ) OSCs
concept, with two-layer structure and nanoscale bulk heterojunction at
the interface between donor layer and acceptor layer, which was pro­
posed and fabricated by rotating coating donor and acceptor layer with
orthogonal -solvents step by step, as shown in Fig. 2 [18–20]. We believe
that the morphology of the active layer obtained by this process is closer
M. Li and F. He
to the ideal state and more stable than other methods. At present, FF of
up to 80% can be achieved in many research systems by Q–PHJ device
structures. Besides the above morphology control methods, the addition
of solvent or solid additives is one of the simplest and effective strategies
to optimize the active layer morphology. By utilizing the selective sol­
ubility of the donor or acceptor and prolonging the film drying time,
thus effectively regulating the phase separation and molecular orienta­
tion of the active layers, this strategy can improves the photovoltaic
characteristics of the films [21]. Due to the limitation of poor FFs, many
research systems have not achieved good results. Thus, how to maximize
the promotion and balance of these three photovoltaic parameters is still
the key to achieving higher PCEs.
2. Stability
2.1. Active layer materials
The stability mentioned in this comment includes the stability of
materials themselves and the stability of the corresponding devices. To
-date, the mainstream design strategy to develop efficient NFAs is based
on the A–D–A structure, in which a strong intramolecular charge
transfer (ICT) effect can be generated to ensure a strong and broad light
absorption for effectively harvesting solar energy [10]. In general, most
of A–D–A-type NFAs are synthesized by a typical Knoevenagel conden­
sation between the aldehyde groups in the D units and the active
methylene groups in the A units. In this manner, the resulting A–D–A
type NFAs inevitably contain very electrophilic carbon-carbon double
bonds due to the strong push–pull effect, which should be easily
attacked by the nucleophiles or photo–oxidized under light irradiation
[22–24], thus leading to unsatisfied chemical and photochemical sta­
bility of donors or acceptors to significantly deteriorate the stability of
the final devices. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of each
strategy has important guiding significance for further improving ma­
terials’ stability.
At present, in-depth explorations on the optical stability of A–D–A
type materials have been conducted. Ring–locked, all–fused–ring,
structural confinement and end-group coupling have been proved highly
effective strategies for improving the physical and chemical stability of
the materials. Although these modifications significantly increased the
glass transition temperatures of the materials, negative impacts on the
improvement or maintenance of PCEs have been made simultaneously
[25]. Oligomeric acceptors are expected to combine the advantages of
both highly developed small molecular and polymeric acceptors. Thus,
we recently adopted a strategy of dimerization–based NFAs, resulting in
a significant improvement in the corresponding dimer-based OSCs and
better device stability. The respective A units of two monomers are
connected by coupling reaction, resulting in a weaker push–pull effect
and further increasing the stability of the double bond between A and D
units [26]. Through the oligomerization strategy, the stabilities of the
NFA itself and the corresponding device have been greatly improved
concurrently. If Q–PHJ device structures is used, the stability of device
based on dimerized acceptors showed excellent stability. It can be seen
that material design and processing technology are extremely important
for the improvement of device performance. What’s more, devices with
more than 18% PCE and excellent stability have been made possible by
adopting this dimerization strategy [27]. Besides, starting from the
acceptor itself, we manipulated intermolecular hydrogen bonds to syn­
thesize molecules with graded hydrogen bond interactions. A desired
layer of hydroxylated BTIC–OH–δ was introduced as a bifunctional layer
in Q–PHJ film. The inserted BTIC–OH–δ layer could effectively protect
the donor layer from erosion by the upper acceptor chloroform solution,
resulting the cascade energy levels in the Q–PHJ OSCs with a high PCE
of 17.33% [28]. We believe that the design and development of
water-alcohol soluble bifunctional SMAs is also a significant topic for
boosting the PCE and stability of OSCs devices, as shown in Fig. 2.
4
Next Energy 2 (2024) 100085
2.2. Interfacial layer materials
Apart from the intrinsic stability of the active layers, the physical and
chemical stability of the interfacial layers and the transport layers are
also issues to be considered. The interfacial layers, such as the electron
transport layer (ETL) and the hole transport layer (HTL), can contribute
significantly to enhancing the device performance. Among them,
research into HTLs currently lags behind that of ETLs.
Zinc oxide (ZnO), as the most widely used and investigated ETL, is
relatively easy to deposit from solution and gives rise to high PCEs due to
its good transport properties [29]. In general, inverted devices fabri­
cated with the structure of ITO/ETL/BHJ/HTL/metal electrode have
attracted considerable interest. These exhibited rather promising sta­
bility results and are promising for the solution-based roll–to–roll
printing industry. Recently, Chen et al. developed a hybrid ETL in
inverted OSCs using ZnO and a new modifying agent (NMA), and
significantly improved the stability [30]. To avoid the poor light sta­
bility when exposed to UV light, tin oxide (SnO2) is considered a
promising alternative to ZnO for NFA–OSCs, giving satisfactory FF and
lifetime [31]. While chemically and physically modified in various forms
have been made to address these drawbacks, the outcome for the sta­
bility performance using conventional architecture so far has not been
very successful. Meanwhile, advanced characterization methods should
be applied to investigate and disclose the interacting mechanisms be­
tween adjacent layers to fully understand the effect of the transport
layers in OSCs device.
In comparison, there is a need for novel solution–processable HTLs
with optimal characteristics and potential for commercial application.
The most used HTL is still PEDOT:PSS due to its processability, good
layer coverage, well–matched work function with most donors, and
tunable wettability. Taking Y–series NFAs, the focus of the current
study, as an example, this might be partially that most of them adopt a
conventional device structure as ITO/HTL/BHJ/ETL/Ag, and PEDOT:
PSS has been selected as the most frequently used HTL material.
Although PEDOT:PSS holds many advantages as HTL mentioned above,
its several critical shortcomings cannot be ignored, especially in the
aspects of stability: (1) PEDOT:PSS with a weak acidity can corrode ITO
anode, leading to migration of In ions into the active layer; (2) PEDOT
chains with positive charges can react with electronegative end groups
in most NFAs; (3) PEDOT:PSS always absorbs moisture and oxygen
inevitably. This is probably one of the most important reasons why the
devices based on PEDOT:PSS exhibit overall low stability and short
lifetime. To improve its chemical stability at cathode interface of OSCs,
we recently have reported a cathode interfacial material by connecting
phenanthroline with carbolong unit [32]. Consequently, the D18:L8–BO
based device with double-phenanthroline–carbolong achieved the
highest PCE of 18.2%, as shown in Fig. 2. Mechanism study showed that
double-phenanthroline–carbolong with larger steric hindrance and
stronger electron-withdrawing property confirms to suppress the inter­
facial reaction with NFAs, resulting the most stable device. On the
whole, the development of interfacial layer and transport layer materials
is still backward and slow, which might need for more effort and
technology.
2.3. Other factors
In fact, during the fabrication, many factors should fatally affect the
PCE and stability of devices, including the batch and purity of materials,
solvent, additive and annealing temperature. In view of the batch of the
donor polymers (degree of polymerization and number–average mo­
lecular weights, n and Mn), the optimal device conditions are not
identical. The high purity material can not only restrain the formation of
defect state effectively, but also realize better stability and reproduc­
ibility of device performance. Besides, the presence of impurities in
NFAs might also destroy the process of phase separation in the blends.
The solvent always has multiple effects on the formation and stability of
M. Li and F. He
films, not only to ensure the solubility of materials, but also to combine
the crystallization kinetics and thermodynamics in blends. Similarly, the
selection of additive types and dosages is also a complex and delicate
work that needs to be carefully examined. Whether to interact with the
donor or acceptor to regulate the phase separation (miscibility) needs
fairly distinct ways. Such studies allowed researchers to design molec­
ular structures that take the relationships into account between the A
and D units, thus realizing a higher PCE with satisfactory stability.
However, the universality of structural modification and improvement
methods is limited and high PCEs and material stability cannot be
concurrently balanced. As a result, it imminently needs to develop more
reliable and practicable strategies without the sacrifice of PCEs. From
the two aspects of material design and device processing, it is possible to
obtain high–performance OSCs devices.
2.4. What is next?
In the past few decades, PCEs of OSCs devices have exceeded 19% for
single-junction cells and over 20% for tandem structures. But there are
still many challenges to face and overcome, including large–area organic
solar modules, flexible and transparent OSCs with the combination of
high PCE, good stability, and green solvent treatment, as shown in Fig. 2.
To address these issues, research and development of materials still play
crucial roles [33,34].
(1) Two major challenges need to be overcome to bridge the effi­
ciency gap between small-area rigid OSCs and large–area flexible
devices: the first challenge lies in preparing high–quality flexible
transparent electrodes (FTEs) with low resistance, high trans­
parency, smooth surface, and superior mechanical properties.
Second, the scalable fabrication of thickness-insensitive photo­
active layers with low–cost materials is also an essential task
[35]. At present, over 17% of PCE has been implemented in
flexible OSCs, which still lags far behind 20% of devices on rigid
substrates/electrodes. In general, FTEs can be fabricated using
dry or wet methods. However, dry fabrication methods have
problems with grain size, roughness and line thickness/resolu­
tion. In addition, such approaches can be complicated and offer
low compatibility with roll–to–toll processing, which limits their
application in flexible electronics. Wet fabrication methods might
lead to inhomogeneous distribution or aggregation of conducting
substances (such as nanowires in suspension), which results in
electrodes with a high percolation threshold and large surface
roughness and, ultimately, an overall low combined performance
in terms of conductivity and transparency. The overall photo­
electric performance of these FTEs is still relatively limited.
Though different conductive materials, including carbon nano­
tubes, graphene, conducting polymers and metallic nanowires,
have been explored, there is still much room for improvement in
efficiency and stability. Therefore, new type of FTEs should be
developed as soon as possible.
(2) The stability of OSCs device is the most important issue in the
current field, which serves as a critical indicator to determine
whether it can be commercialized. While limitations on the sta­
bility of active layer materials and device processes are well
known, strategies or solutions that truly balance PCE and stability
are rare. For light-absorbing materials, it is necessary to design
and synthesize materials with high optical and thermodynamic
stability, and simultaneously to have fairly strong tolerance to
acid, alkali and other conditions. Although great progress in the
dimer, trimer and other oligomeric small molecules have been
made, there is still much room for development. The formation
and maintenance of the ideal active layer morphology is an
important goal in the pursuit of high stability OSCs device.
Considering exciton dissociation, carrier transport and charge
collection, the film-casting process of light-absorbing materials
5
Next Energy 2 (2024) 100085
still needs to be further explored, which reflects the level of FF to
some extent. In short, the study of stability is still the important
and difficult point of the next stage of development and research
in the field of organic photovoltaic.
(3) Due to the huge consumption of active layer materials, the syn­
thetic cost should be low enough for the scalable and high
throughput fabrication of OSCs. In the field of OSCs, all of the
current record–high efficiency OSCs rely heavily on D–A type
conjugated polymer donors, fused-ring electron acceptors
(FREAs), and polymerized FREAs, which require tedious syn­
thetic routes and suffer from relatively high synthesis costs [36].
From the molecular structure point of view, developing NFRAs is
of great and urgent significance, and PCEs have surpassed 18%
and the stability can be partially improved, compared to the OSCs
based on FREAs in some case. These results imply that the mo­
lecular design strategy is promising to obtain efficient and pho­
tostable NFAs with low–cost feature, and boost the device
efficiency based on fully non-fused BHJ blend films, which is
essential to further commercialization of OSCs. On the other
hand, it is also of great value to develop appropriate methodology
to optimize the preparation process of active layer materials and
increase yields. For example, Li et al. lately developed a simple
and cheap boron trifluoride etherate–catalyzed Knoevenagel
condensation, providing a facile and low-cost access to a wide
range of D–A organic semiconductors for emerging technologies
[37].
(4) Decreasing the thickness sensitivity of active layers is greatly
needed to make the PCEs not change significantly for the slight
thickness variation and more compatible with the scalable
coating techniques. Controlling the packing mode and
morphology of the active layer, designing the molecule structure
to regulate the suitable miscibility of NFAs, and incorporating
high hole mobility of donors to accelerate hole transportation are
effective strategies to achieve the thickness insensitivity of the
active layers. In addition, the interfacial layer materials, espe­
cially for ETL, are also key factors in the large–area flexible OSCs.
The ETL needs to be thin enough (5–20 nm) to provide good
ohmic contact for the charges transferring. And a thick ETL will
significantly increase the series resistance of large–area OSCs
owing to its low conductivity. Therefore, it is highly necessary to
develop materials and related coating techniques for the ETL with
thickness–insensitive properties in the large–area flexible OSCs.
(5) Note is that spin–coating technology is typically used on the
laboratory scale. Undoubtedly, these environmentally unfriendly
solvents would bring about extra expenses in large–scale pro­
cessing, to satisfy industrial regulations and waste deposition.
Besides the strict limitations set by commercial production, high
operational stability is also a prior factor to be taken into account
[38]. In addition, the solubility issue associated with the use of
green solvents for the fabrication of OSCs often results in large
phase separation for the donor and acceptor materials in active
layers, deteriorating the device performance. Many novel mo­
lecular design strategies have been developed, for instance,
polymers designed with bulky side chains, the random structures,
etc., found to have slightly reduced crystallinity and from the
perspective of device optimization, LBL processing, delayed
processing method, etc., are used to regulate the film morphology
[39–42]. To date, excellent PCEs over 18% have been achieved
for many green–solvents–processed OSCs. These developments
would greatly accelerate the commercialization of OSCs.
(6) Actually, c–Si cells can’t meet the application needs of electronic
products, and their PCEs under indoor lighting conditions is only
2–6% [43], so the application potential of the concentrating OSCs
have been investigated regarding the fabrication process.
Remarkably, the state–of–the–art PCE of 33.0% has been ach­
ieved when concentrating indoor light to 20,000 lux. Meanwhile,
M. Li and F. He
all OSCs exhibit superior stability under concentrated indoor
light due to mild lighting conditions [44]. What’s more, there is
still no acknowledged and robust assessment criteria for the
evaluation of efficient devices in this regard.
In general, the field of OSCs has achieved significant improvements
in PCEs, mainly due to the innovation and development of active layer
materials. This comment summarized the recent progress and effective
strategies, and analyzed the challenges we are facing for the further
development from the structure of OSCs. Many practicable strategy to
improve the device stability with decent PCEs will definitely make them
a promising candidate in coming commercialization of OSCs. As a
matter of fact, the enhancement of the OSCs’ performance has been
ready for commercialization, suggesting that it can be a good comple­
ment to existing photovoltaic technology, mainly c–Si and PSCs. Device
reproducibility and a long-term stability should be paid more attentions
in the next stage, which demands the combination of industry and
research. In particular, the design of molecular structure and the inno­
vation of device engineering need to be closely linked. For example, the
dimerized NFAs combined with Q-PHJ device structure was proposed,
which take both into account and become a typical sample. At the same
time, it requires researchers in other fields to develop new methods to
avoid the poor characteristics, which might impede the applications in
the large–scale production of OSCs. If these challenges can be addressed,
the potential application of the flexible OSCs will have a great impact on
global energy production and flexible electronic devices.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This comment was financially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (22225504), Shenzhen Fundamental
Research Program (JCYJ20210324120010028 and
JCYJ20200109140801751), Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of
Catalysis (2020B121201002).
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Mingpeng Li received his B.S. in 2016 from Zhengzhou Uni­
versity and his Ph.D. in 2022 from Nankai University with Prof.
Yongsheng Chen. He is currently a post-doctor with Prof. Feng
He in Southern University of Science and Technology (SUS
Tech). His research is mainly focused on the design and syn­
thesis of high-performance acceptors for solar-energy conver­
sion, including organic solar cells and advanced energy
materials.
M. Li and F. He Next Energy 2 (2024) 100085

Feng He obtained his B.Eng. degree (2002) and Ph.D. (2007)

from Jilin University with Prof. Yuguang Ma. Then he moved to
University of Toronto for his postdoctoral training with Prof.
Mitchell A. Winnik and Prof. Ian Manners. In 2009, he joined
Prof. Luping Yu’s group at the University of Chicago. From
2011–2014, Dr. He worked as a senior research scientist in
Nano-C Inc. at Boston and Polyera Corp. at Chicago. Currently,
he is a professor at SUSTech. His major research interest is the
organic conjugated polymers for optoelectronics and renew­
able energy applications, and supramolecular self-assembly of
block copolymers.