Path to the fabrication of efficient, stable and commercially viable large-area organic solar cells

Abstract

Organic Solar Cells (OSCs) have reached an outstanding certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of over 19% in single junction and 20% in tandem architecture design. Such high PCEs have emerged with outstanding Y-shaped Y6 non-fullerene acceptor (NFA), together with PM6 electron donor polymers. With PCEs on the rise for small-area OSCs; large-area OSC sub-modules still lack in achieving such high PCEs, and the highest certified PCE reported so far is ~12% having an area of 58 cm2. To fabricate efficient large-area OSCs, new custom-designed NFAs for large-area are imminent along with the improvements in the sub-module fabrication platforms. Moreover, the search for stable yet efficient OSCs is still in progress. In this review, the progress of small-area OSCs has been presented with reference to the advancement in the chemical structure of NFAs and donor polymers. Lastly, the life-cycle assessment of OSCs has been presented and the energy payback time of the efficient and stable OSCs has been discussed and finally, an outlook for the OSCs is given.

Powering the Future: A Critical Review of Research Progress in Enhancing Stability of High‐Efficiency Organic Solar Cells

“…Moreover, large-area OSC modules with high efficiency and stability are crucial for practical application, while PCEs of large-scale devices still lag their corresponding small-area devices. [99,155] Their operational lifetime research also needs to be regarded. It requires the interest and intellectual support of numerous chemists, material scientists, physicists, and engineers to improve the lifetime and promote their commercial application.…”

Fourth-generation solar cells: a review

“…OSCs are made either by thermal evaporation or wet processing. 161 Some other common methods include inkjet printing, 162 magnetron sputtering, 160 solvent-based fabrication, 163,164 sequential deposition or the layer-by-layer technique, 165 where the layer-bylayer method can also be used to make bilayer heterojunction OSCs (Fig. 10(b)).…”

Role of Charge‐Carrier Dynamics Toward the Fabrication of Efficient Air‐Processed Organic Solar Cells

“…Photoactive blend solution consists of electron donor polymers (such as P3HT, PTB7-Th, PM6, PNTz4T) and electron acceptors (such as fullerene-based derivatives such as PC 60 BM, PC 71 BM, ICBA, and NFAs such as IDTBR, ITIC, Y6, and its derivatives). [116][117][118] Due to difference in their solubility in a given solvent and temperature-dependent aggregation type behavior of certain polymers, different drying kinetics will be observed leading to variable film formation kinetics. [116,117] In this regard, investigation of the drying kinetics and morphological features of the photoactive film are important aspects of the given photoactive system.…”

“…[116][117][118] Due to difference in their solubility in a given solvent and temperature-dependent aggregation type behavior of certain polymers, different drying kinetics will be observed leading to variable film formation kinetics. [116,117] In this regard, investigation of the drying kinetics and morphological features of the photoactive film are important aspects of the given photoactive system. Various ex situ and in situ characterization techniques have been implemented so far to uncover these phenomena.…”