A brief review of organic solar cells and materials involved in its fabrication

Abstract

Organic solar cells are a futuristic system of power generation whose time has come. There is a looming threat of climate change which threatens life on earth as we know it. Also, fossil fuels will run out and will be exhausted in the not so near future. This will create a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportion and hence proper action needs to be taken in order to prevent this scenario from being a reality. An organic solar cell is an active area of research since the early 1970s and materials for the fabrication of organic solar cells are being developed for the past five decades. Both small molecule and polymeric materials have been developed for organic solar cell development. However, there is an issue of efficiency in the materials for organic solar cells. It has struggled to break the 5% energy efficiency barrier. This makes it a challenge for organic solar cells to be a viable option. However, even this is a considerable improvement from the initial 0.01% in the 1970s. Needless to say, a lot of research needs to be done in order to make a feasible organic solar cell a reality. This review looks at the different materials for organic solar cells and the disadvantages of organic solar cells.