Organic photovoltaics (OPVs),especially the solutionprocessable organic photovoltaic materials and devices,have attracted great attention in recent years because of the advantages of simple device structure,low cost,light weight and flexibility of the organic solar cells (OSCs).The highest power conversion efficiency of the OSCs has been improved rapidly,from ca.3% ten years ago to over 10% at present,by the development of new photovoltaic materials and new device structures.Notably,Chinese scientists have contributed greatly to the achievements in the high efficiency photovoltaic materials and electrode buffer layers for the OSCs.Therefore,we organize this special issue for Sci China Chem to report recent research progress from Chinese scientists in this field.