Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

One of the responsibilities of scientists is to help develop new ways in which we can generate energy, since gaining control over energy resources such as petroleum has been one of the main reasons for conflict between nations. Renewable energy generated by solar cells is one of the potential solutions to the problem of maintaining our energy supply and these have been studied intensively for about half-century. Today, silicon solar cells have already been commercialized and have become an indispensable source of electricity. However, the price of electricity produced by silicon solar cells is still higher than that produced by petroleum. In order to increase the production of energy by solar cells, the price of electricity produced by solar cells needs to be lower than that produced by petroleum. Organic solar cells have the potential to be part of the next generation of low-cost solar cells. There was a steep increase in the power-conversion efficiency of organic solar cells around the year 2000, indicating that the technology needed to bring them to a commercial level would be established by around 2020, taking into consideration the example of organic electroluminescent devices for which scientific breakthroughs were made in 1987 and commercialization occurred around 2010. Now, in 2015, the power-conversion efficiency of organic solar cells has reached 12%.