Device Performance of Emerging Photovoltaic Materials (Version 1)

Abstract

Emerging photovoltaics (PVs) focus on a variety of applications complementing large scale electricity generation. Organic, dye-sensitized, and some perovskite solar cells are considered in building integration, greenhouses, wearable, and indoor applications, thereby motivating research on flexible, transparent, semitransparent, and multi-junction PVs. Nevertheless, it can be very time consuming to find or develop an up-to-date overview of the stateof-the-art performance for these systems and applications. Two important resources for recording research cells efficiencies are the National Renewable Energy Laboratory chart and the efficiency tables compiled biannually by Martin Green and colleagues. Both publications provide an effective coverage over the established technologies, bridging research and industry. An alternative approach is proposed here summarizing the best reports in the diverse research subjects for emerging PVs. Best performance parameters are provided as a function of the photovoltaic bandgap energy for each technology and application, and are put into perspective using, e.g., the Shockley-Queisser limit. In all cases, the reported data correspond to published and/or properly described certified results, with enough details provided for prospective data reproduction. Additionally, the stability test energy yield is included as an analysis parameter among state-of-the-art emerging PVs.

Comprehensive Performance Calibration Guidance for Perovskites and Other Emerging Solar Cells

“…Recently, Almora et al also provided a repository for the latest best performance data about these technologies as a function of photovoltaic bandgap energy for each material type. [49] With the rapid growth in efficiencies and continuous improvement in device stability, the emerging technologies have been transitioning from lab-scale research devices to larger prototype modules. A number of startup companies are about to introduce the module products in the commercial market.…”

Design of All-Fused-Ring Electron Acceptors with High Thermal, Chemical, and Photochemical Stability for Organic Photovoltaics

“…Benefiting from the excellent tunability of the electronic structure and blend morphology for donor (D)-acceptor (A)-type electron acceptors, [1][2][3][4] organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have achieved high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) above 17% within a short period of time, [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] indicating a bright future for commercial applications, provided that the three key issues, efficiency, cost, and stability, can be synergistically addressed. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Currently, most high-performance D-A acceptors contain an electron-rich core and strong electron-deficient 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene)malononitrile (INCN) terminals (Figure 1a), 29 recognized as one of the main factors that limit the device lifetime because the exocyclic double bonds formed by the kinetically reversible Knoevenagel condensation reaction (KCR) are highly labile upon photooxidation, [30][31][32][33][34] ZnO-catalyzed photodegradation, 35,36 and base-induced [37][38][39] decomposition (Figure 1a).…”

Semi-Transparent Organic Photovoltaic Cells with Dielectric/Metal/Dielectric Top Electrode: Influence of the Metal on Their Performances

“…The growing interest in organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) is due to the fact that they possess some specific advantages such as light weight, intrinsic flexibility, and possible semi-transparency of organic thin films [1]. More specifically, semi-transparent OPVs attract strong interest due to the efforts currently directed toward building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs).…”

“…More specifically, semi-transparent OPVs attract strong interest due to the efforts currently directed toward building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs). Recently, much research has focused on improving OPV efficiency [1][2][3][4], but some applications, such as BIPV, induce the use of semi-transparent OPVs, which are less efficient than the usual opaque OPVs because they have to transmit a significant amount of visible light [5,6]. Therefore, for semi-transparent OPVs, it is not appropriate to use optimal organic layer thickness.…”