Perylene Imides for Organic Photovoltaics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Abstract

Perylene imides have been an object of research for 100 years and their derivatives are key n-type semiconductors in the field of organic electronics. While perylene diimides have been applied in many electronic and photonic devices, their use can be traced back to the first efficient organic solar cell. By functionalizing different positions of the in total 12 positions (four peri, four bay, and four ortho-positions) on the perylene core, perylene imides with significantly different optical, electronic and morphological properties may be prepared. Perylene imides and their derivatives have been used in several types of organic photovoltaics, including flat-, and bulk-heterojunction devices as well as dye-sensitized solar cells. Additionally perylene imides-based copolymers or oligomers play an important role in single junction devices. In this review, the relationship between the photovoltaic performance and the structure of perylene imides is discussed.

Thionated perylene diimides with intense absorbance in the near-IR

“…1,2 These properties have led to their exploitation in various applications such as organic field-effect transistors, chemical sensors, 3 thin-film transistors, 4 complex supramolecular systems 5,6 and, increasingly, organic photovoltaics (OPVs). 7 Recent interest in OPVs has begun to outstrip that of traditional silicon based solar cells due to their low cost, synthetic adaptability and processing ability. 8 Currently many of the materials being investigated for these applications absorb in the UV/visible region, however, as 50% of solar energy falls in the near infrared (NIR) spectral range, the efficiency of these devices could be greatly improved by extending the absorption of these materials to 750 nm and beyond.…”

Synthesis and Self‐Assembly of Bay‐Substituted Perylene Diimide Gemini‐Type Surfactants as Off‐On Fluorescent Probes for Lipid Bilayers

“…Substituted perylene‐3,4:9,10‐tetracarboxylic diimides (PDIs) have attracted interest for a variety of applications, including organic electronics,1, 2, 3 single molecule spectroscopy4, 5, 6 and bioimaging 7, 8, 9. For bioimaging, fluorescent quenching of PDIs has been used to sense hydrophobicity changes such as in artificial and cellular bilayers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.…”

High resolution NEXAFS of perylene and PTCDI: a surface science approach to molecular orbital analysis

“…5 More recently, a new class of n-type organic semiconductors, based on PTCDI derivatives, has been demonstrated capable of filling the historical gap between p-type and n-type OFETs in terms of both charge mobility and environmental stability. 6,7 Ahead of an impressive increase of the number of newly synthesized PTCDI derivatives for both OPVs 8 and OFETs, 9 the advanced modeling of perylenes is mostly focused on the intermolecular coupling geometry, 10 which affects the optical spectrum, 11 and on the structure of monolayer phases at surfaces. [12][13][14] From the experimental point of view, the spectroscopic characterization of the molecular orbitals of the free PTCDI molecule, as well as of perylene, is largely outdated or limited.…”