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Non-fullerene acceptors have recently attracted tremendous interest because of their potential as alternatives to fullerene derivatives in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells. However, the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) have lagged far behind those of the polymer/fullerene system, mainly because of the low fill factor (FF) and photocurrent. Here we report a novel perylene bisimide (PBI) acceptor, SdiPBI-Se, in which selenium atoms were introduced into the perylene core. With a well-established wide-band-gap polymer (PDBT-T1) as the donor, a high efficiency of 8.4% with an unprecedented high FF of 70.2% is achieved for solution-processed non-fullerene organic solar cells. Efficient photon absorption, high and balanced charge carrier mobility, and ultrafast charge generation processes in PDBT-T1:SdiPBI-Se films account for the high photovoltaic performance. Our results suggest that non-fullerene acceptors have enormous potential to rival or even surpass the performance of their fullerene counterparts.

Water/alcohol-soluble conjugated polymers (WSCPs) and small molecules (WSCSs) are materials that can be processed from water or other polar solvents. They provide good opportunities to fabricate multilayer organic optoelectronic devices without interface mixing by solution processing, and exhibit a promising interface modification ability for metal or metal oxide electrodes to greatly enhance the device performance of solar cells. Moreover, owing to their intriguing processability, WSCPs and WSCSs have great potential for applying environmentally friendly processing technologies to fabricate solar cells. In this review, the authors give an overview of recent developments in WSCPs and WSCSs, including their molecular design, material synthesis, functional principles and application as interface modification layers and photoactive components in emerging photovoltaic technologies such as organic/polymer solar cells, organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells and dye-sensitised solar cells.