Designs and Architectures for the Next Generation of Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Organic solar cells show great promise as an economically and environmentally friendly technology to utilize solar energy because of their simple fabrication processes and minimal material usage. However, new innovations and breakthroughs are needed for organic solar cell technology to become competitive in the future. This article reviews research efforts and accomplishments focusing on three issues: power conversion efficiency, device stability and processability for mass production, followed by an outlook for optimizing OSC performance through device engineering and new architecture designs to realize next generation organic solar cells.

Keywords

• solar energy
• photovoltaics
• organic solar cells
• semiconducting conjugated polymers
• power conversion efficiency
• solar cell degradation and stability
• large-area solar cells
• solar cell designs