Ning Li

Verified

Ning verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

Verified

Ning verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

• Professor (Full) at South China University of Technology

Solution-processed perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and perovskite light emitting diodes (PeLEDs) represent promising next-generation optoelectronic technologies. This Review summarizes recent advancements in the application of metal halide perovskite materials for PSC and PeLED devices to address the efficiency, stability and scalability issues. Emph...

Rapid crystallization facilitated by antisolvents is widely employed for producing high‐quality perovskite films, but constrained by the limited variety and high toxicity of conventional solvents, underscoring the need for sustainable and low‐toxicity solvent systems for large‐scale production. In this study, a systematic screening of over 40 antis...

The bottom-up construction of electronics from colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) could innovate nanotechnology manufacturing through printing. However, the unstable and expensive semiconductive CQD inks make the scaling up of CQD electronics challenging. Here we develop a strategy for engineering the solution chemistry of lead sulfide (PbS) CQD inks pr...

Perovskite's surface defects trigger deep level traps and energy misalignment, resulting in substantial interface recombination and energy loss in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, 9‐fluoreneacetic acid (FAA), a self‐assembled molecule (SAM), is employed to passivate the interface defects and modulate energy alignment. SAM modification reduces...

The dipole moment of hole transport materials (HTMs) plays a vital role in improving the photovoltaic performance of inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, manipulating dipole moments of polymer HTMs, which have great operational and bias stability, remains challenging. In this work, polymer HTMs with varying lengths of glycol side chains...

Perovskite-organic tandem solar cells (P-O-TSCs) hold substantial potential to surpass the theoretical efficiency limits of single-junction solar cells. However, their performance is hampered by non-ideal interconnection layers (ICLs). Especially in n-i-p configurations, the incorporation of metal nanoparticles negatively introduces serious parasit...

Polymer hole transport materials offer significant efficiency and stability advantages for p–i–n perovskite solar cells. However, the energetic disorder of amorphous polymer hole transport materials not only limits carrier transport but also impedes contact between the polymer and perovskite, hindering the formation of high crystalline quality pero...

Organic protective coatings encounter significant challenges in the face of mechanical damage, weathering degradation, and corrosion activities. Developing coatings that feature both autonomous damage reporting and enhanced durability is a promising yet challenging endeavor. In this study, inspired by the “damage coloration” of lurid bolete, a mult...

Although the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) has been rapidly improved, there is still a lot of room for designing and developing new materials and their combinations to approach the efficiency limit. In this work, we establish a database of ∼100 bulk heterojunction OSCs composed of representative donors and acceptors repo...

Integrating semitransparent organic photovoltaics (ST‐OPVs) into building structures is a promising technology that serves aesthetic purposes while retaining window functionality, and it also facilitates solar energy harvesting and heat insulation. However, balancing power conversion efficiency (PCE), visible light transmittance (VLT), infrared rad...

All-inorganic perovskites prepared by substituting the organic cations (for example, methylammonium and formamidinium) with inorganic cations (for example, Cs⁺) are effective concepts to enhance the long-term photostability and thermal stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs)1,2. Hence, inorganic perovskite tandem solar cells (IPTSCs) are promisi...

Over the past decades, organic optoelectronic devices have shown broad application prospects. Due to the solubility property of organic materials, the use of toxic solvent obstacles the device fabrication processing...

Recently published in Joule, Feng Liu and colleagues from Shanghai Jiaotong University reported a record-breaking 20.8% power conversion efficiency in organic solar cells (OSCs) with an interpenetrating fibril network active layer morphology, featuring a bulk p-i-n structure and proper vertical segregation achieved through additive-assisted layer-b...

Three-dimensional/two-dimensional (3D/2D) heterojunctions in perovskite solar cells exhibit excellent optoelectronic properties and enhanced stability under mild ageing conditions. However, their performance degrades drastically under harsh ageing conditions. This study reveals...

While state‐of‐the‐art organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have been achieved by halogen modification strategies for active layer materials, the stability of these OPVs can be compromised by the presence of halogen ions at the interface and within the photoactive layer. Herein, halogen‐free photoactive layer‐based OPV cells are fabricated and systematical...

Organic donor‐acceptor (D‐A) conjugated macrocycles, which are regarded as terminal‐less counterparts of linear π‐systems, have emerged as a promising class material for organic optoelectronics. Nevertheless, circular symmetry generally makes the lowest electronic transition symmetry forbidden, which is a huge obstacle to developing bright near‐inf...

In the advancement of organic photovoltaics (OPV) toward scale‐up production, how to mitigate the batch instability of electron‐donating polymers originated from varied molecular weights remains a great challenge. By taking into consideration the relationship between the molecular weight of electron‐donating polymers and the relevant critical conce...

The realization of scalable roll-to-roll production processes for metal-halide perovskite modules is a necessary development for transferring developments and technologies from the lab to the fab. Before that, it is...

Perovskite-based tandem solar cells stand at the forefront of photovoltaic innovation due to their exceptional performance and cost-effective fabrication. This study focuses on minimizing energy losses within a 1.80 eV perovskite sub-cell. We demonstrate that the surface treatment of perovskite with binary guanidinium bromide and 4-fluorophenylammo...

We use an automated research platform combined with machine learning to assess and understand the resilience against air and light during production of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices from over 40 donor and acceptor combinations. The standardized protocol and high reproducibility of the platform results in a dataset of high variety and veracity...

Optimizing light utilization is crucial in organic photovoltaics. Understanding the intricate connection between the optical properties and the chemical structure of organic materials is pivotal yet challenging in this regard. Herein, over 2800 published reports with a database of ≈300 organic non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs) are surveyed and a mathe...

Semitransparent organic photodetectors (ST‐OPDs) show immense promise for integration into optoelectronic devices, offering adjustable absorption and see‐through functionalities. However, achieving high‐performance ST‐OPDs remains challenging, necessitating a delicate balance of low dark current density, high external quantum efficiency, and optima...

Inorganic perovskite tandem solar cells (IPTSCs) are promising candidates to break the efficiency bottleneck and address the stability issue. However, challenges remain in fabricating 2-terminal (2T) IPTSCs due to the inferior film formation and deep trap states induced by tin cations. Herein, a green ligand evolution (GLE) strategy with p-toluenes...

The outdoor stability of organic solar modules (OSMs) directly determines the success of the organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology, which is critically important but insufficiently studied so far. Here, we perform...

Thanks to the introduction of non‐fullerene acceptors, efficiencies of organic photovoltaics are now approaching 20%. Closing the gap with inorganic photovoltaics requires minimizing voltage losses without penalizing charge extraction, for which microstructure control is crucial. However, the complex interplay between microstructure and charge gene...

The emerging photovoltaic (PV) technologies, such as organic and perovskite PVs, have the characteristics of complex compositions and processing, resulting in a large multidimensional parameter space for the development and optimization of the technologies. Traditional manual methods are time‐consuming and labor‐intensive in screening and optimizin...

The development of a robust quasi-ohmic contact with minimal resistance, good stability and cost-effectiveness is crucial for perovskite solar cells. We introduce a generic approach featuring a Lewis-acid layer sandwiched between dopant-free semicrystalline polymer and metal electrode in perovskite solar cells, resulting in an ideal quasi-ohmic con...

Operational stability is the main obstacle to the industrial applications of organic solar cells (OSCs). In this study, different degradation mechanisms under continuous simulated solar radiation are demonstrated for high‐performance non‐fullerene OSCs based on commonly used electron transport materials, i.e., ZnO and SnO2. The ZnO‐induced decompos...

Interface engineering is crucial to achieving stable perovskite photovoltaic devices. A versatile approach is developed to tailor interface properties via integrating co-assembled monolayers (co-SAMs) at the p-type buried interface and by capping a two-dimensional (2D) perovskite layer at the n-type upper interface with vacuum quenching. Optimized...

Near‐infrared organic light‐emitting diodes (NIR OLEDs) with emission peak above 900 nm are attractive for many emerging applications, spanning from bioimaging to light detection and ranging. However, the device performance of NIR OLEDs is generally limited by the low quantum efficiency of emitters because of the fast nonradiative transition proces...

Water processing is an ideal strategy for ecofriendly fabrication of organic solar cells (OSCs), exhibiting strong market driven need. Here, we developed a sequential layer-by-layer (LBL) processing OSCs using a...

Minimizing energy loss in organic solar cells (OSCS) is critical for attaining high photovoltaic performance. Among the parameters that correlated to photovoltaic performance, the energy offsets between donor–acceptor pairs play a vital role in photoelectric conversion processes. For so far reported a large number of non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs),...

Over the last two decades the organic solar cell community has synthesized tens of thousands of novel polymers and small molecules in the search for an optimum light harvesting material. These materials are often crudely evaluated simply by measuring the current–voltage (JV) curves in the light to obtain power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Materi...

Photocurrent matching in conventional monolithic tandem solar cells is achieved by choosing semiconductors with complementary absorption spectra and by carefully adjusting the optical properties of the complete top and bottom stacks. However, for thin film photovoltaic technologies at the module level, another design variable significantly alleviat...

The responsivity and specific detectivity are critical figures of merits for organic photodetectors; however, it remains challenging to simultaneously enhance two such parameters, since enhancing external quantum efficiency corresponding to responsivities will inevitably increase leakage current and noises, resulting in decreased specific detectivi...

Organic photodetectors have attracted increasing attention in the scenario of low-cost imaging, health monitoring, and near-infrared sensing. However, relatively high dark current and trap density block the sensitivity for organic photodetectors. In this manuscript, a simple yet effective strategy is proposed to enhance the detectivity of organic p...

With the rapid development of organic photovoltaics, device stability has become a crucial obstacle hindering their transition from laboratory to industrial applications. However, it remains still unclear how light differs...

Over the last two decades the organic solar cell community has synthesised tens of thousands of novel polymers and small molecules in the search for an optimum light harvesting material. These materials were often crudely evaluated simply by measuring the current voltage curves in the light to obtain power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Materials...

Semitransparent organic solar cells show attractive potential in the application of building‐integrated photovoltaics, agrivoltaics, floating photovoltaics, and wearable electronics, as their multiple functionalities of electric power generation, photopermeability, and color tunability. Design and exploration of semitransparent organic solar cells...

Mixed lead and tin (Pb/Sn) hybrid perovskites exhibit a great potential in fabricating all‐perovskite tandem devices due to their easily tunable bandgaps. However, the energy deficit and instability in Pb/Sn perovskite solar cells (PSCs) constrain their practical applications, which renders defect passivation engineering indispensable to develop hi...

The density of states (DOS) is fundamentally important for understanding physical processes in organic disordered semiconductors, yet hard to determine experimentally. We evaluated the DOS by considering recombination via tail states and using the temperature and open-circuit voltage (Voc) dependence of the ideality factor. By performing Suns-Voc m...

Due to the complicated film formation kinetics, morphology control remains a major challenge for the development of efficient and stable all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). To overcome this obstacle, the sequential deposition method is used to fabricate the photoactive layers of all-PSCs comprising a polymer donor PTzBI-oF and a polymer acceptor PS...

Despite the rapid progress of organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors, simultaneously achieving high power conversion efficiency and long-term stability for commercialization requires sustainable research effort. Here, we demonstrate stable devices by integrating a wide bandgap electron-donating polymer (namely PTzBI-dF) and two accept...

Organic solar cells (OSCs) now approach power conversion efficiencies of 20%. However, in order to enter mass markets, problems in upscaling and operational lifetime have to be solved, both concerning the connection between processing conditions and active layer morphology. Morphological studies supporting the development of structure–process–prope...

CsPbI2Br is an attractive photovoltaic material due to its promising optoelectronic properties. However, the corresponding perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with p-i-n configuration suffer from low open-circuit voltage (VOC) and fill factor (FF), limiting their application in tandem solar cells. Here, we propose using the fullerene ICBA as the electron...

Separating films with both high efficiency and large flux are desperately needed to meet the rising demand for the treatment of oily wastewater, while traditional oil/water separation papers with high separation efficiency usually suffered from low flux due to the unsuitable size of filtration pores. Herein, we report a bio-based porous, superhydro...

The investigation of drying dynamics and kinetic quenching depth related degradation of high‐performance photoactive materials with scalable coating techniques demands significant research attention. Herein, film formation kinetics regulated crystallinity, preferential orientation and vertical phase separation of the active layers is revealed, whic...

State-of-the-art n-i-p perovskite solar cells (PSCs) suffer from stability issues due to ionic interdiffusion. Herein, by enlarging indacenodithiophene -bridge donor (D’) to combine with methoxy triphenylamine donor (D) and benzothiadiazole acceptor (A), three linear molecules termed as L1, L2 and L3 with D-A-D’-A-D structure are developed as dopa...

Reducing the dark current (Jd) under reverse bias while maintaining a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) is essential for the practical application of organic photodiodes (OPDs). However, the high Jd of OPDs is generally difficult to reduce because its origin in organic photodiodes is still not well understood and is strongly temperature depend...

Despite the research value of bilayer organic solar cells (OSCs) for commercialization in the future, the bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ) structure dominates the fabrication of OSCs because of its higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared with bilayer OSCs. This study investigated four different types of bilayer OSC structures using sequential pr...

The power conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells (OSCs) have reached over 19%. However, the combination of high efficiency and long-term stability is still a major conundrum of commercialization. Here a Y6-analogue and a 2,2′-bithiophene unit are utilized to construct a series of oligomer acceptors to investigate the effect of molecular siz...

The development of hole transport materials (HTMs) with high mobility, long‐term stability and comprehensive passivation is of vital significance for simultaneously improving the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PVSCs). Herein, two donor‐acceptor (D‐A) conjugated polymers PBTI and PFBTI with alternated benzodithiophene (BDT) and...

The density of states (DOS) is fundamentally important for understanding physical processes in organic disordered semiconductors, yet hard to determine experimentally. We evaluated the DOS by considering recombination via tail states and using the temperature and open-circuit voltage ($V_\mathrm{oc}$) dependence of the ideality factor in organic so...

Aliovalent-doped metal oxide nanocrystals exhibiting localized surface plasmons (LSPRs) are applied in systems that require reflection/scattering/absorption in infrared and optical transparency in visible. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is currently leading the field, but indium resources are known to be very restricted. Antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) is a...

Lead-Tin perovskite solar cells (Pb/Sn PSCs) are limited by the intrinsic instability of Sn(II), which tends to oxidize forming Sn vacancies in perovskite films. Herein, a Lewis base β-guanidinopropionic acid (GUA) and hydrazinium iodide (HAI) are introduced to effectively passivate the perovskite bulk and surface, respectively. The synergistic app...

Reduced‐dimensional (2D or quasi‐2D) perovskites have recently attracted considerable interest due to their superior long‐term stability. The nature of the intercalating cations plays a key role in determining the physicochemical properties and stability of the quasi‐2D perovskites. Here, the thermal stability of a series of 2D Ruddlesden−Popper (R...

Wavelength‐selective transparent polymer solar cells (T‐PSCs) have huge developing potential in power‐window applications for their excellent visible transparency and high color‐rendering index. However, the main research interest of devices until now is focused on near‐infrared absorbers for both polymer donor and nonfullerene small‐molecule accep...

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have progressed steadily through three stages of photoactive materials development: (i) use of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and fullerene-based acceptors (FAs) for optimizing bulk heterojunctions; (ii) development of new donors to better match with FAs; (iii) development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). The development and...

Double‐cable conjugated polymers with near‐infrared (NIR) electron acceptors are synthesized for use in single‐component organic solar cells (SCOSCs). Through the development of a judicious synthetic pathway, the highly sensitive nature of the 2‐(3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydroinden‐1‐ylidene)malononitrile (IC)‐based electron acceptors in basic and protonic solv...

The incorporation of solid additive has been considered as an effective strategy for developing organic photovoltaics with multi‐components, which is independent of dynamics, playing unique roles in morphology adjustment. However, their complex working mechanisms involving specific chemical structures are selective to material systems, hence limiti...

Stability is one of the most important challenges facing material research for organic solar cells (OSC) on their path to further commercialization. In the high-performance material system PM6:Y6 studied here, we investigate degradation mechanisms of inverted photovoltaic devices. We have identified two distinct degradation pathways: one requires t...

Double‐cable conjugated polymers with near‐infrared (NIR) electron acceptors are synthesized for use in single‐component organic solar cells (SCOSCs). Through the development of a judicious synthetic pathway, the highly sensitive nature of the 2‐(3‐oxo‐2,3‐dihydroinden‐1‐ylidene)malononitrile (IC)‐based electron acceptors in basic and protonic solv...

Rational design and engineering of top interface layers with combined properties of effective passivation, high thermal‐ and photo‐stability are effective methods to advance the commercialization of perovskite photovoltaics. Here, we develop an innovative anode interface combination based on alcohol‐dispersed poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl) (P3HT)...

Although the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs) continue increasing toward the 20% milestone, important factors for industrial application are mostly neglected, such as photostability and cost potential. Single-component OSCs (SCOSCs) employing materials with chemically bonded donor and acce...

With rapid progress, organic solar cells (OSCs) are getting closer to the target of real application. However, the stability issue is still one of the biggest challenges that have to be resolved. Especially the thermal stability of OSCs is far from meeting the requirements of the application. Here, based on the layer‐by‐layer (LBL) process and by u...

Bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ‐OSCs) are designed to overcome inefficient charge generation and limited exciton diffusion of organic semiconductors. However, there are some disadvantages involving inherent voltage losses, microstructure control, and operational instability. Bilayer solar cells (BL‐OSCs) without mixed regions are free...

Efficient and stable organic solar cells via full coating are highly desirable. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is a classic conducting polymer complex and widely used for hole collection in fully printable devices. However, PEDOT:PSS is typically dispersed in water and exhibits strong acidity that deteriorates de...

Stability is one of the most important challenges facing organic solar cells (OSC) on their path to commercialization. In the high-performance material system PM6:Y6 studied here, investigate degradation mechanisms of inverted photovoltaic devices. We have identified two distinct degradation pathways: one requires presence of both illumination and...