Organic Solar Cells — A Survey

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine in some detail the question of efficient organic solar cells. The scientific-technical situation concerning organic solar cells is highly confusing and unsatisfactory. Isolated and incomplete pieces of information have been found on a great number of different materials. Especially the physical aspects of solar cells have been treated only inadequately by most authors, and many open questions and unsolved problems have been left unconsidered. Only very few candidate materials — such as the phthalocyanines and perylene derivatives — fulfill essential requirements such as those concerning stability, feasibility of p-n diodes, etc. The highest uncorrected efficiencies under sunlight that have so far been measured on organic cells lie around 1%, while typical efficiency values are well below 0.1%. It is recommended that future work be focused on the most promising of those materials in order to make a realistic assessment of the real potential of organic solar cells.