Trendsetters in High-Efficiency Organic Solar Cells: Toward 20% Power Conversion Efficiency

摘要

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are one of the most promising low-carbon technologiesfor the generation of electricity. It is blessed with a relatively lowerinstallation time and cost, light weight, semitransparent nature, and suitability forroll-to-roll printing process. In the past, critics of OSCs were concerned about itslimited efficiency compared with other contemporary photovoltaic (PV) technologies.However, in the past few years, researchers in this field have madesufficient progress in terms of high performance, and OSC efficiency has witnessedsignificant growth. Today, a large number of OSCs are demonstrating>10% efficiency, recently reaching the milestone of 17%. The boost in efficiencyis crucial for the successful commercialization of OSC. Herein, the recentadvancements in OSC are highlighted to analyze the key players working behindthe surge in its efficiency. The contributions of novel organic photovoltaicsmaterials and their morphology as well as novel device architectures are discussed.Finally, the major challenges facing the upscaling and commercializationof OSCs are addressed.