In OPVs, textured or patterned surfaces, nanostructures, or optical coatings induce light trapping. These techniques aim to maximize light capture within the thin organic layers of the solar cell, enhancing photon absorption, exciton generation, and power conversion efficiencies [119].
In recent years, the performance of organic thin-film solar cells has gained rapid progress, of which the power conversion efficiencies (η p) of 3%–5% are commonly achieved, which were difficult to obtain years ago and are improving steadily now.
For thin film organic solar cells, light trapping schemes need to be modified due to the low refractive index of the substrate, or practical difficulties of employing large textured structures, and also the fundamentally different optical behavior of light in thin films.
At the interface, the electron and hole separate, creating an electrical current through the solar cell. Organic thin-film solar cells in their most basic form consist of two layers of semiconducting material sandwiched between a transparent and a reflecting electrode (Figure 1).Sunlight is incident on the cell through the transparent electrode.
This configuration was initially studied in detail for inorganic thin film solar cells, and showed strong absorption enhancements due to coupling of light into guided modes in the photo-absorbing layer , , . For organic solar cells, demonstrations can be found in references , , .
Other small molecule materials that have been investigated for use in organic solar cells include porphyrins, squaraines, and phthalocyanines. For example, zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) has been used in conjunction with fullerene derivatives to achieve a power conversion efficiency of 4.1% .
The limited charge carrier transport in organic semiconductors requires the active layer of organic solar cells to be thin. Minimizing optical losses due to insufficient absorption in the thin organic active layer requires novel designs of light trapping schemes.
In OPVs, textured or patterned surfaces, nanostructures, or optical coatings induce light trapping. These techniques aim to maximize light capture within the thin organic layers of the solar cell, enhancing photon absorption, exciton generation, and power conversion efficiencies [119].
In this review, we discuss the light trapping schemes for organic thin film …
"Organic and Polymeric Thin-Film Materials for Solar Cells" is a new open …
The active layer of solar cells contains the donor organic material and the acceptor organic material, used in a layer-by-layer fashion in bilayer heterojunction and are combined together in bulk heterojunction solar cells [30]. Light crosses from the transparent electrode followed by the hole transport layer to incorporate into the active layer. The end layer …
Then a rival thin-film solar technology, called perovskites, burst on the scene. Perovskites are blends of organic and inorganic compounds that are cheap to make, easy to process, and great at capturing sunlight and turning it into electricity. While OPV progress stalled, the efficiency of perovskites skyrocketed from about 6.5% in 2012 to about 24% in 2020. …
Multijunction solar cells, photon upconversion and downconversion, and …
It leads to the formation of thin films of polymers that can be printed onto a flexible substrate. "That is why organic solar cells can be very flexible and lightweight," he explains. The team ...
Opportunities and challenges in perovskite–organic thin-film tandem solar cells X. Meng, Z. Jia, X. Niu, C. He and Y. Hou, Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 8307 DOI: 10.1039/D3NR06602A . This article is licensed under a …
A multidisciplinary research effort at Stanford University is focused on developing advanced, lightweight, flexible thin-film solar cells based on abundant and easy-to-process organic materials. This is Part 1 of a two-part series.
In this work, we review thin film solar cell technologies including α-Si, CIGS and CdTe, starting with the evolution of each technology in Section 2, followed by a discussion of thin film solar cells in commercial applications in Section 3. Section 4 explains the market share of three technologies in comparison to crystalline silicon technologies, followed by Section 5, …
Organic solar cells, also known as organic photovoltaics (OPV), utilize …
Second generation solar cells, also known as thin-film solar cells, are made from materials like copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and amorphous silicon (a-Si). 37,38 They are thinner than traditional solar cells and have a higher tolerance to temperature changes, with an efficiency range of 10–15%. They use less ...
Recent advances in dye-sensitized and organic polymer solar cells have lead NASA to …
This article summarizes recent progress in organic thin-film solar cells related to materials, device structures and working principles. In the device functioning part, after each brief summary of the working principle, the …
"Organic and Polymeric Thin-Film Materials for Solar Cells" is a new open Special Issue of Materials. Organic and polymeric semiconductors exhibit higher light absorption coefficients than their inorganic counterparts, to such an extent that they are suitable for photovoltaic applications to absorb light covering the entire solar spectrum ...
A multidisciplinary research effort at Stanford University is focused on developing advanced, lightweight, flexible thin-film solar cells based on abundant and easy-to-process organic materials. This is Part 1 of a two-part series.
This article summarizes recent progress in organic thin-film solar cells related to materials, device structures and working principles. In the device functioning part, after each brief summary of the working principle, the methods for improvements, such as absorption increment, organic/electrode interface engineering, morphological issues, are ...
Zhang, W. et al. Ultrasmooth organic-inorganic perovskite thin-film formation and crystallization for efficient planar heterojunction solar cells. Nat Commun 6, 6142 (2015). Nat Commun 6, 6142 (2015).
Organic semiconductor films have recently demonstrated their potential for use in photovoltaic active layers. Efficiency and stability improvements in recent decades have opened up new possibilities for different applications and have brought the commercialization of such technologies for large-scale production of solar cells much closer [1,2,3,4].
In this report, TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) functionalized with poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) composites films have been developed for use in organic solar cells (OSCs). The TiO 2 ∕PEDOT:PSS films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis, PL, and microscopy techniques.
The results are helpful in simulating the organic–inorganic perovskite thin film solar cells. Following this, we show the application of the device model in typical organic–inorganic perovskite thin film solar cells in Section 4.1 in terms of the effects of the trap states, direct band recombination, surface recombination, and ion migration.
Thin-film organic solar cells (TFOSCs) are a popular technology because of their small size, light weight, high mechanical flexibility, and low-cost easy manufacturing [].However, their low performance parameters and thermal instability at high temperature hinder their commercialization [].Other available materials for thin films such as inorganic solar cells …
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