One more step towards better stability of non-fullerene organic solar cells: advances, challenges, future perspectives, and the Era of artificial intelligence

Abstract

Non-fullerene acceptor-based organic solar cells (NF-OSCs) have achieved notable advancements during the past few years. Recently, their power conversion efficiency (PCE) has surpassed 20% due to the development of new photovoltaic materials and device optimization strategies; however, inferior stability is still a key obstacle that limits their commercialization, which is mainly due to a lack of understanding of the underlying degradation mechanism of NF-OSCs. In this review, we first briefly discuss the major developments in the structural design and performance of NFAs followed by their distinctive features in OSCs and stability measurement protocols. Afterward, we explain various limiting factors and different degradation mechanisms in depth for NF-OSCs. Furthermore, we highlight and discuss the recent progress in the development of highly stable NF-OSCs with a detailed discussion of various aspects and effective strategies such as the molecular design, modification of active layer materials, use of additives, third component approaches, interface engineering, electrode engineering, and other potential strategies including encapsulation techniques and single component approaches. The main challenges and the guidance for future research to overcome the existing stability issues to achieve stable OSCs are also presented. Finally, the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) in improving the performance of NF-OSCs is highlighted in the last section of this review.