Perylene-diimide derived organic photovoltaic materials

In organic solar cells (OSCs), the material design on photovoltaic layers and interlayers has significantly contributed to the rapid progress of the device performance. Perylene-diimides (PDIs), owing to their distinct advantages of high electron affinity, high electron mobility and facial chemical modification, are being widely studied in OSCs, especially designed as photovoltaic acceptors and cathode interlayers. In this review, recent progress on those PDI derived photovoltaic materials is systematically summarized. Due to the different working mechanism in devices, the design strategies on modification of the parent PDI units towards their application as acceptors and cathode interlayers are explained. After disclosing the fundamental structure-property relationships, we disclose some common features in the design of those tailor-made PDI-based photovoltaic materials, and we also highlight the challenges and opportunities in improving their device performance in the future.