Morphology Control for Efficient Nonfused Acceptor-Based Organic Photovoltaic Cells.

Non-fused electron acceptors have huge advantages in fabricating low-cost organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. However, morphology control is a challenge as non-fused C─C single bonds bring more molecular conformations. Here, by selecting two typical polymer donors, PBDB-TF and PBQx-TF, the blend morphologies and its impacts on the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of non-fused acceptor-based OPV cells are studied. A selenium-containing non-fused acceptor named ASe-5 is designed. The results suggest that PBQx-TF has a lower miscibility with ASe-5 when compared with PBDB-TF. Additionally, the polymer networks may form earlier in the PBQx-TF:ASe-5 blend film due to stronger preaggregation performance, leading to a more obvious phase separation. The PBQx-TF:ASe-5 blend film shows faster charge transfer and suppressed charge recombination. As a result, the PBQx-TF:ASe-5-based device records a good PCE of 14.7% with a higher fill factor (FF) of 0.744, while the PBDB-TF:ASe-5-based device only obtains a moderate PCE of 12.3% with a relatively low FF of 0.662. The work demonstrates that the selection of donors plays a crucial role in controlling the blend morphology and thus improving the PCEs of non-fused acceptor-based OPV cells.

Morphology and Performance Enhancement through the Strong Passivation Effect of Amphoteric Ions in Tin-based Perovskite Solar Cells.

Despite the optoelectronic similarities between tin and lead halide perovskites, the performance of tin-based perovskite solar cells remains far behind, with the highest reported efficiency to date being ≈14%. This is highly correlated to the instability of tin halide perovskite, as well as the rapid crystallization behavior in perovskite film formation. In this work, l-Asparagine as a zwitterion plays a dual role in controlling the nucleation/crystallization process and improving the morphology of perovskite film. Furthermore, tin perovskites with l-Asparagine show more favorable energy-level matching, enhancing the charge extraction and minimizing the charge recombination, leading to an enhanced power conversion efficiency of 13.31% (from 10.54% without l-Asparagine) with remarkable stability. These results are also in good agreement with the density functional theory calculations. This work not only provides a facile and efficient approach to controlling the crystallization and morphology of perovskite film but also offers guidelines for further improved performance of tin-based perovskite electronic devices.

Synthesis and Characterization of a Soluble A-D-A Molecule Containing a 2D Conjugated Selenophene-Based Side Group for Organic Solar Cells.

A new acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) small molecule based on benzodithiophene (BDT) and diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) is synthesized via a Stille cross-coupling reaction. A highly conjugated selenophene-based side group is incorporated into each BDT unit to generate a 2D soluble small molecule (SeBDT-DPP). SeBDT-DPP thin films produce two distinct absorption peaks. The shorter wavelength absorption (400 nm) is attributed to the BDT units containing conjugated selenophene-based side groups, and the longer wavelength band is due to the intramolecular charge transfer between the BDT donor and the DPP acceptor. SeBDT-DPP thin films can harvest a broad solar spectrum covering the range 350-750 nm and have a low bandgap energy of 1.63 eV. Solution-processed field-effect transistors fabricated with this small molecule exhibit p-type organic thin film transistor characteristics, and the field-effect mobility of a SeBDT-DPP device is measured to be 2.3 × 10-3 cm2 V-1 s-1 . A small molecule solar cell device is prepared by using SeBDT-DPP as the active layer is found to exhibit a power conversion efficiency of 5.04% under AM 1.5 G (100 mW cm-2 ) conditions.

Design of Chlorinated Indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b']dithiophene Acceptors toward Efficient Organic Photovoltaics.

Chlorinated modifications have been extensively employed to modulate the optoelectronic properties of π-conjugated materials. Herein, the Cl substitution in designing nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) with various bandgaps is studied. Four narrow-bandgap electron acceptors (GS-40, GS-41, GS-42, and GS-43) were synthesized by tuning the electrostatic potential distributions of the molecular conjugated backbones. The optical absorption onset of these NFAs ranges from 900 to 1030 nm. Compared to the nonchlorinated analogue, the introduction of Cl atoms on the core of indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b'] dithiophene (IDT) and π spacer results in an upward shift of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital levels and induces a blue shift in the absorption spectra of the NFAs. This alteration facilitates achieving appropriate energy-level alignment and favorable bulk heterojunction morphology when blended with the widely used donor PBDB-TF. The PBDB-TF:GS-43-based solar cells show an optimal power conversion efficiency of 13.3%. This work suggests the potential of employing chlorine-modified IDT and thiophene units as fundamental building blocks for developing high-performance photoactive materials.

Trifluoromethyl-Substituted Conjugated Random Terpolymers Enable High-Performance Small and Large-Area Organic Solar Cells Using Halogen-Free Solvent.

The advancement of non-fullerene acceptors with crescent-shaped geometry has led to the need for polymer donor improvements. Additionally, there is potential to enhance the photovoltaic parameters in high-efficiency organic solar cells (OSCs). The random copolymerization method is a straightforward and effective strategy to further optimize photoactive morphology and enhance device performance. However, finding a suitable third component in terpolymers remains a crucial challenge. In this study, a series of terpolymer donors (PTF3, PTF5, PTF10, PTF20, and PTF50) is synthesized by introducing varying amounts of the trifluoromethyl-substituted unit (CF3) into the PM6 polymer backbone. Even subtle changes in the CF3 content can significantly enhance all the photovoltaic parameters due to the optimized energy levels, molecular aggregation/miscibility, and bulk-heterojunction morphology of the photoactive materials. Thus, the best binary OSC based on the PTF5:Y6-BO achieves an outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.2% in the unit cell and a PCE of 11.6% in the sub-module device (aperture size: 54.45 cm2 ), when using halogen-free solvent o-xylene. This work showcases the remarkable potential of the easily accessible CF3 unit as a key constituent in the construction of terpolymer donors in high-performance OSCs.

Large Steric Hindrance Enhanced Molecular Planarity for Low-Cost Non-Fused Electron Acceptors.

Designing efficient non-fused ring electron acceptors is of great importance in decreasing the material cost of organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). It is a challenge to construct a planar molecular skeleton in non-fused molecules as there are many torsions between adjacent units. Here, we design two non-fused electron acceptors based on bithieno[3,2-b]thiophene units as core structures and study the impact of steric hindrance of substituents on molecular planarity. We use 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl and 4-hexylphenyl groups to prepare ATTP-1 and ATTP-2, respectively. Our results suggest that the enhanced steric hindrance is beneficial for obtaining a more planar molecular configuration, which significantly increases the optical absorption and charge transport properties. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PBDB-TF:ATTP-1 combination (11.3%) is superior to that of PBDB-TF:ATTP-2 combination (3.7%). In addition, an impressive PCE of 10.7% is recorded in ATTP-1-based devices when a low-cost polythiophene donor PDCBT is used, which is an outstanding value in OPVs fabricated by non-fused donor/acceptor combinations. Our work demonstrates that modulation of the steric hindrance effect is of great significance to control the molecular planarity and thus obtain excellent photovoltaic performance of low-cost non-fused electron acceptors.

Synthesis and characterization of conjugated low band-gap terpolymers incorporating carbazole for photovoltaic application.

A series of photoactive conjugated low band-gap copolymer (CPSB) and terpolyemrs (TPSBCz-n, n = 1 to 4) based on N-alkyl carbazole, 4,4'-dialkyl dithienosilole, and bezothiadiazole were synthesized. The copolymer and terpolymers were built with the fraction of the carbazole unit varied for 0, 2.5, 5, 10 and 25 mol%. Among the mixtures, the composition of 25 wt% of terpolymer bearing 10 mol.% of the carbazole unit, TPSBCz-3, and 75 wt% of C71-PCBM found a power conversion efficiency of 0.86% with a open-circuit voltage of 0.59 V, the short-circuit current of 4.85 mA and fill factor of 0.30 under AM 1.5 spectral illumination. Our findings suggest that terpolymer bearing low concentration of carbazole lead to a high power conversion efficiency with improved the short-circuit current due to hole mobility enhancement effect of carbazole unit.

Synthesis of fluorene-based semiconducting copolymers for organic solar cells.

Semiconducting polymers composed of 2,2'-(9,9-dioctyl-9H-fluorene-2,7-diyl)dithiophenes (F8T2s) and (2E,2'E)-3,3'-(2,5-bis(octyloxy)-1,4-phenylene) bis(2-(5-bromothiophene-2-yl)acrylonitrile)s (OPTANs) have been synthesized through Pd(O)-catalyzed Suzuki coupling polymerization by controlling the monomer ratio. The synthesized polymers were confirmed to exhibit good solubility in common solvents, simple processability, and thermal stability up to 350 degrees C. The highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs), lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs), and optical band-gap energies were determined using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and UV-visible spectrometry. The synthesized polymers showed their maximum absorption and edge at around 520 and 650 nm, respectively. The optical band-gap energies of the polymers were determined to be 1.89 eV. Bulk heterojunction organic solar cells were fabricated using the conjugated polymer as the electron donor, and 6,6-phenyl C61-butyric acid methylester (PC61BM) or 6,6-phenyl C71-butyric acid methylester (PC71BM) as the electron acceptor. The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the solar cells based on polymer:PC71BM (1:1) and polymer:PC71BM (1:2) were 0.68% and 1.22%, respectively, under air mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5 G) illumination at 100 mW/cm2.

Preparation and characterization of high molecular weight low bandgap polymers based on poly(2,7-carbazole)s for organic solar cells.

We report the PCDTBT {Poly[N-9'-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4',7'-di-2-thienyl-2',1',3'-benzothiadiazole)]}, an alternating copolymer of 2,7-carbazole and dithienyl-2,1,3-benzothiazole, has high molecular weight and narrow molecular weight distribution. Our PCDTBT can be successfully prepared as good yield by using tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium [Pd(PPh3)4] catalyst instead of Pd2dba3/P(o-Tol)3 catalyst. From the UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy, we can observe that absorption bands of PCDTBT are bathochromically shifted by increasing the molecular weight, that is to say, our high molecular weight PCDTBT can absorb much longer wavelength light compare to low molecular weight PCDTBT. The best performance can be obtained from device based on the mixture of PCDTBT (polymer-30) and PC70BM {[6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester} (1:4) as an active layer, which shows 4.50% of PCE with 10.1 mA/cm2 of short-circuit current density (J(SC)), 0.85 V of open-circuit voltage (V(OC)), and 52.3% of fill factor which is very similar with Leclerc's published result.

Efficient TCO-free organic solar cells with modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) anodes.

Organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) with a highly conductive poly 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:poly styrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) layer as an anode and that were modified with the addition of some organic solvents such as sorbitol (So), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP), dimethylformamide (DMF), and ethylene glycol (EG) were fabricated without the use of transparent conducting oxide (TCO). The conductivity of the PEDOT:PSS film that was modified with each additive was enhanced by three orders of magnitude. According to the atomic force microscopy (AFM) study, the conductivity enhancement might have been related to the better connections between the conducting PEDOT chains. The TCO-free solar cells with a modified PEDOT:PSS layer and an active layer composed of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl [6, 6] C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) performed as well as the indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-based organic solar cells. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the organic solar cells with a DMSO-, So + DMSO-, and EG-modified PEDOT:PSS layer reached 3.51, 3.64, and 3.77%, respectively, under an illumination of AM 1.5 (100 mW/cm2).

Synthesis and characterization of new dithienosilole-based copolymers for polymer solar cells.

A series of dithienosilole-based copolymers, poly [(4,4'-bis(2-hexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-5,5'-diyl] (P1), poly[(4,4'-bis(2-hexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(2,2'-bithiazole)-5,5'-diyl] (P2), poly[(4,4'-bis(2-hexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]silole)-2, 6-diyl-alt-(10 -methyl-phenothiazine)-3,7-diyl](P3), poly[(4,4'-bis(2-hexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(4,7-bis(2-thienyl)-9,10-anthracene)-5,5'-diyl] (P4) were synthesized by the Pd-catalyzed Stille polymerization method. Electron-deficient benzothiadiazole and bithiazole units and electron-rich phenothiazine and anthracene moieties were incorporated into the polymer backbone to obtain the broad absorption spectrum and to improve the hole-transporting characteristics, respectively. The polymer solar cell (PSC) was fabricated with a layered structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer:C71-PCBM (1:3)/LiF/Al. The best performance of PSC was obtained at P3:C71-PCBM which reaches a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.18%, with a short circuit current density (J(sc)) of 4.75 mA/cm2, an open circuit voltage (V(oc)) of 0.71 V, and a fill factor (FF) of 0.35 under AM 1.5G irradiation (100 mW/cm2).

Synthesis of a new conjugated polymer composed of pyrene and bithiophene units for organic solar cells.

An alternating conjugated copolymer composed of pyrene and bithiophene units, poly(DHBT-alt-PYR) has been synthesized. The synthesized polymer was found to exhibit good solution processibility and thermal stability, losing less than 5% of their weight on heating to approximately 370 degrees C. The synthesized polymer showed its maximum absorption and peak PL emission at 401 and 548 nm, respectively. The optical band gap energy of the polymer was determined by absorption onset to be 2.64 eV. Highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels of the polymer was determined to be -5.48 and -2.84 eV by cyclic voltametry (CV) and the optical band gap. The polymer photovoltaic devices were fabricated with a typical sandwich structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/active layer/LiF/Al using poly(DHBT-alt-PYR) as an electron donor and C60-PCBM or C70-PCBM as electron acceptors. The open circuit voltage, short circuit current and fill factor of the device using C70-PCBM as an acceptor were 0.75 V, 3.80 mA/cm2 and 0.28, respectively, and the maximum power conversion efficiency of the device was 0.80%.

Synthesis and properties of copolymers composed of arylenevinylene and phenothiazine for organic solar cells.

A series of new organic semiconducting copolymers composed of {(2E,2'E)-3,3'-[2,5-bis(octyloxy)-1,4-phenylene]-bis[2-(thiophen-2-yl)acrylonitrile]}(OPTAN) and 10(2'-ethylhexylphenothiazine) (PTZ) monomers, (the copolymers are hereafter referred to as poly(OPTAN-co-PTZ)s), were synthesized by using Suzuki coupling polymerization in which the monomer ratios were controlled. An increase in the OPTAN content shifted the peak and onset absorption of the copolymers to the longer wavelength regions, which resulted in a decrease in the band gap energy. The maximum UV absorption of the polymer films was in the range 523-540 nm and the optical band gap energies were in the range 1.90-1.87 eV. Energy levels of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the polymers were determined by cyclic voltammetry (CV). The HOMO energy level of the copolymers was between -5.07 and -5.12 eV. Photovoltaic devices were fabricated by using the copolymers as the p-type donor and C60-PCBM or C70-PCBM as the electron acceptors. The device with poly(50OPTAN-alt-50PTZ) and C70-PCBM showed the best performance among the fabricated devices; the open circuit voltage, short circuit current, fill factor, and maximum power conversion efficiency of this device were 0.79 V, 5.25 mA/cm2, 0.30, and 1.25%, respectively.

Alkyl-Side-Chain Engineering of Nonfused Nonfullerene Acceptors with Simultaneously Improved Material Solubility and Device Performance for Organic Solar Cells.

Two nonfullerene small molecules, TBTT-BORH and TBTT-ORH, which have the same thiophene-benzothiadiazole-thiophene (TBTT) core flanked with butyloctyl (BO)- and octyl (O)-substituted rhodanines (RHs) at both ends, respectively, are developed as electron acceptors for organic solar cells (OSCs). The difference between the alkyl groups introduced into TBTT-BORH and TBTT-ORH strongly influence the intermolecular aggregation in the film state. Differential scanning calorimetry and UV-vis absorption studies reveal that TBTT-ORH exhibited stronger molecular aggregation behavior than TBTT-BORH. On the contrary, the material solubility is greatly improved by the introduction of a BO group in TBTT-BORH, and the inevitably low molecular interaction and packing ability of the as-cast TBTT-BORH film can be effectively increased by a solvent-vapor annealing (SVA) treatment. OSCs based on the two acceptors and PTB7-Th as a polymer donor are fabricated owing to their complementary absorption and sufficient energy-level offsets. The best power conversion efficiency of 8.33% is obtained with the SVA-treated TBTT-BORH device, where, together with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.02 V, the charge-carrier mobility and the short-circuit current density were greatly improved by the SVA treatment to levels comparable to those of the TBTT-ORH device because of the suppressed charge recombination and improved film morphology. In this work, the simultaneous improvement of both material solubility and device performance is achieved through alkyl side-chain engineering to balance the trade-offs among material solubility/crystallinity/device performance.

Alkylated Indacenodithiophene-Based Non-fullerene Acceptors with Extended π-Conjugation for High-Performance Large-Area Organic Solar Cells.

In this work, a series of A-D-A'-D-A-type electron acceptors based on alkylated indacenodithiophene (C8IDT), dicyanated thiophene-flanked 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (CNDTBT), and 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene)malononitrile (INCN) or 2-(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene) malononitrile (FINCN) are synthesized in order to investigate the effect of substituents on their photovoltaic properties. The corresponding CNDTBT-C8IDT-INCN and CNDTBT-C8IDT-FINCN acceptors vary in their optical, electrochemical, morphological, and charge transport properties. The fluorinated-INCN-based acceptor (CNDTBT-C8IDT-FINCN) exhibits lower energy levels, improved absorptivity, narrower π-π spacing, and prominent fibrillar structures when it is blended with poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene))-alt-5,5-(1',3'-di-2-thienyl-5',7'-bis(2-ethylhexyl)benzo [1',2'-c:4',5'-c']dithiophene-4,8-dione)] (PBDB-T). CNDTBT-C8IDT-FINCN exhibits a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.33% due to its high and well-balanced charge carrier mobility and distinct face-on orientation. Furthermore, large-area organic solar cells (OSCs) (active area: 55.45 cm2) with CNDTBT-C8IDT-FINCN exhibit a high PCE of 9.21%. This result demonstrates that CNDTBT-C8IDT-FINCN is a suitable and promising electron acceptor for large-area OSCs.

Highly Efficient and Photostable Ternary Organic Solar Cells Enabled by the Combination of Non-Fullerene and Fullerene Acceptors with Thienopyrrolodione-based Polymer Donors.

Two polymer donors, PFBDT-8ttTPD and PClBDT-8ttTPD, consisting of halogenated thiophene-substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene and alkyl-substituted thieno[3,2-b]thiophene linked thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6(5H)-dione, were designed and synthesized for the evaluation of photovoltaic performances. The fabricated IT-4F-based organic solar cells (OSCs) exhibited maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) values of 12.81 and 11.12% for PFBDT-8ttTPD and PClBDT-8ttTPD, respectively. Furthermore, PFBDT-8ttTPD:Y6 showed significantly improved PCE (15.05%) due to the extended light harvesting in the broad solar spectrum, whereas the PClBDT-8ttTPD:Y6 displayed relatively low PCE (10.02%). A ternary system incorporating PC71BM as the third component into bulk-heterojuction composites (PFBDT-8ttPTD:non-fullerene) was investigated with the aim of utilizing the advantages of PC71BM. As a result, PFBDT-8ttTPD:IT-4F:PC71BM exhibited an improved PCE (13.67%) compared to that of the corresponding binary OSC. In particular, ternary OSC of PFBDT-8ttTPD:Y6:PC71BM showed outstanding photovoltaic performance (PCE = 16.43%) as well as photostability, retaining approximately 80% of the initial PCE after 500 h under continuous illumination. The introduction of a small amount of PC71BM resulted in favorable and dense molecular packing with improved crystallinity as well as enhanced charge carrier mobility for efficient OSC.

Improvement of Ohmic Contact Between the Indium Tin Oxide and Copper-Plated Contact of Solar Cells by Using the Cu-Sn Alloy Film.

Copper plating has been considered as a future metallization technique to reduce metal contact area and material cost in silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. In this paper, a Cu-Sn alloy film is used as a seed layer material on an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer with the goal to enhance contact resistivity between the seed and ITO layer. The contact resistivity between the seed layer and ITO is an important parameter because low contact resistivity is required for the high fill factor of the solar cells. In addition, it was confirmed that tin diffusion to ITO can affect contact resistivity by annealing samples having a Cu-Sn seed layer. Contact resistivity values of the samples were extracted by using transfer length method (TLM). Atomic percentage of tin in the Cu-Sn film was measured by the energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Also, tape tests were carried out to simply confirm the adhesion of contacts with the Cu-Sn seed layer.

Study of Double Layer Indium Tin Oxide in Silicon Hetero-Junction Solar Cells.

In this literature, we discussed the effect of anti-reflection coating of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells with different characteristics of double layered indium tin oxide (ITO/ITO) structure. Firstly, the OPAL 2 simulation was performed to optimize the values of the photo generation-current density of ITO/ITO/Si device structures. Afterwards, experimental work was conducted by depositing ITO on the SHJ solar cell to analyze the anti-reflection coating effect. ITO was deposited on the SHJ solar cell for 90 to 180 seconds by varying the oxygen flow rate. The highest short-circuit current density of 39.25 mA/cm² was obtained when ITO was deposited for 150 seconds, which was higher than the short-circuit current density of non-deposited cell of ITO (38 mA/cm²). The efficiency of the SHJ solar cell increased by about 2% after additional ITO deposition to 20.75%, which was due to the improvement of short-circuit current density by ITO deposition. The double layer ITO helped to improve the efficiency of SHJ solar cell by increasing light absorption in a silicon wafer.

Ethyleneoxy substituted methanofullerenes for acceptor materials in organic photovoltaic cells.

Aiming at improving the phase behavior of the OPVCs, we have designed and synthesized a series of C60 and C70 derivatives, which showed high electron mobility, electron affinity, and good solubility. These methanofullerene acceptor materials having ethyleneoxy substituent, PCBEs, were synthesized from the reaction of fullerene C60 or C70 with each hydrizide. Device performances of OPVC using the mixture of P3HT and PCBEs as an active layer were measured under illumination of 100 mW/cm2 AM 1.5G simulated light. Pristine OPVC using P3HT:compound 3 showed 2.59% of power conversion efficiency, which is much higher than 1.65% of pristine P3HT:PCBM device. The electrochemical and photophysical properties of these methanofullerene derivatives were examined by using cyclicvoltammetry and UV-Vis spectroscopy, respectively. We revealed that ethyleneoxy substituted methanofullerenes can be used as a good candidate for acceptor materials in OPVCs.

Biological Aspects of Aggression and Violence in Schizophrenia.

Although the majority of patients with schizophrenia are not actually violent, an increased tendency toward violent behaviors is known to be associated with schizophrenia. There are several factors to consider when identifying the subgroup of patients with schizophrenia who may commit violent or aggressive acts. Comorbidity with substance abuse is the most important clinical indicator of increased aggressive behaviors and crime rates in patients with schizophrenia. Genetic studies have proposed that polymorphisms in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene and in the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene are related to aggression. Neuroimaging studies have suggested that fronto-limbic dysfunction may be related to aggression or violence. By identifying specific risk factors, a more efficient treatment plan to prevent violent behavior in schizophrenia will be possible. Management of comorbid substance use disorder may help prevent violent events and overall aggression. Currently, clozapine may be the only effective antipsychotic medication to repress aggressive behavior. With the current medical field moving toward tailored medicine, it is important to identify vulnerable schizophrenia populations and provide efficient treatment.