25th Anniversary Article: A Decade of Organic/Polymeric Photovoltaic Research

TLDR

Organic photovoltaic technology has advanced from less than 1 % to over 10 % power‑conversion efficiency in the last decade through multidisciplinary research, making it a promising candidate for future thin‑film solar cells. This review retrospectively examines the past decade of OPV research, emphasizing recent advances in solution‑processed polymeric materials and devices. The review discusses efforts such as designing novel compounds, controlling film morphology, elucidating device mechanisms, developing new architectures, and scaling up manufacturing. These achievements have driven rapid growth in OPV technology.

Abstract

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology has been developed and improved from a fancy concept with less than 1% power conversion efficiency (PCE) to over 10% PCE, particularly through the efforts in the last decade. The significant progress is the result of multidisciplinary research ranging from chemistry, material science, physics, and engineering. These efforts include the design and synthesis of novel compounds, understanding and controlling the film morphology, elucidating the device mechanisms, developing new device architectures, and improving large‐scale manufacture. All of these achievements catalyzed the rapid growth of the OPV technology. This review article takes a retrospective look at the research and development of OPV, and focuses on recent advances of solution‐processed materials and devices during the last decade, particular the polymer version of the materials and devices. The work in this field is exciting and OPV technology is a promising candidate for future thin film solar cells.