Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) that can be fabricated by solution processing techniques are under intense investigation in both academic institutions and industrial companies because of their potential to enable mass production of flexible and cost-effective alternative to silicon-based solar cells. A combination of novel polymer development, nanoscale morphology control and processing optimization has led to over 8% power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) for BHJ PSCs with a conventional device structure. Attempts to develop PSCs with an inverted device structure as required for achieving high PECs and good stability have, however, met with limited success. Here, we report that a high PCE of 8.4% under AM 1.5G irradiation was achieved for BHJ PSCs with an inverted device structure. This high efficiency was obtained through interfacial engineering of solution-processed electron extraction layer, leading to facilitate electron transport and suppress bimolecular recombination. These results provided an important progress for solution-processed PSCs, and demonstrated that PSCs with an inverted device structure are comparable with PSCs with the conventional device structure.

In order to develop high performance polymer solar cells (PSCs), full exploitation of the sun-irradiation from ultraviolet (UV) to near infrared (NIR) is one of the key factors to ensure high photocurrents and thus high efficiency. In this review, five of the effective design rules for approaching LBG semiconducting polymers with high molar absorptivity, suitable energy levels, high charge carrier mobility and high solubility in organic solvents are overviewed. These design stratagems include fused heterocycles for facilitating π-electron flowing along the polymer backbone, groups/atoms bridging adjacent rings for maintaining a high planarity, introduction of electron-withdrawing units for lowering the bandgap (E_g), donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymerization for narrowing E_g and 2-dimensional conjugation for broadened absorption and enhanced hole mobility. It has been demonstrated that LBG semiconducting polymers based on electron-donor units combined with strong electron-withdrawing units possess excellent electronic and optic properties, emerging as excellent candidates for efficient PSCs. While for ultrasensitive photodetectors (PDs), which have intensive applications in both scientific and industrial sectors, sensing from the UV to the NIR region is of critical importance. For polymer PDs, E_g as low as 0.8 eV has been obtained through a rational design stratagem, covering a broad wavelength range from the UV to the NIR region (1450 nm). However, the response time of the polymer PDs are severely limited by the hole mobility of LBG semiconducting polymers, which is significantly lower than those of the inorganic materials. Thus, further advancing the hole mobility of LBG semiconducting polymers is of equal importance as broadening the spectral response for approaching uncooled ultrasensitive broadband polymer PDs in the future study.

A major limitation to increasing the efficiency of perovskite hybrid solar cells (pero-HSCs) is the fact that the diffusion length of the electrons is shorter than that of the holes. To facilitate the electron extraction efficiency in pero-HSCs and to make this efficiency comparable with that of the holes, we fabricated bulk heterojunction (BHJ) pero-HSCs by mixing perovskite materials with water-/alcohol-soluble fullerene derivatives. The observed enhanced short-circuit current densities (J_SC) and enlarged fill factors (FF) were a result of the balance in the charge carrier extraction efficiency and the enlarged interfacial area between the perovskite materials and the fullerene derivatives. Significantly improved power conversion efficiencies were obtained for these BHJ pero-HSCs. A greater than 22% increase in power conversion efficiency was observed for the BHJ pero-HSCs compared with planar heterojunction pero-HSCs. A remarkable 86.7% FF, the highest reported value for pero-HSCs, was observed for the BHJ pero-HSCs. Our strategy of using a BHJ structure in pero-HSCs offers an efficient and simple way to further increase the performance of these devices.

Recent progresses in device structures, working mechanisms, functions and advances of each component layer, as well their correlations with the efficiency and stability of inverted OPVs, are reviewed and illustrated.