Bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells (PSCs) have attracted much attention in recent years due to their advantages of easy fabrication, simple device structure, low cost, light weight, and capability to be fabricated into flexible devices. However, the maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the present PSCs is still much lower than that of silicon solar cell and need to be further improved for the demand of commercial production. Recent studies indicated that the incorporation of silole (silacyclopentadiene) moiety could effectively improve the crystalline and energy level (HOMO/LUMO) of the corresponding donor-acceptor conjugated polymer, thus remarkably increased the PCE of device. The present review summarizes and analyzes the progress silole-containing congjugated polymer photovoltaic donor materials in the past few years. Some issues to be addressed and hotspots to be further investigated are also presented and discussed. Contents
1 Introduction
2 Silole-containing congjugated polymer photovoltaic donor materials
2.1 2,3,4,5-Substituted silole-containing polymer photovoltaic donor materials
2.2 Dibenzosilole-containing polymer photovoltaic donor materials
2.3 Dithienosilole-containing polymer photovoltaic donor materials
2.4 [JP3]Silaindacenodithiophene-containing polymer photo-voltaic donor materials
3 Concluding remarks