Abstract
The organic solar cell (OSC) is a promising emerging low‐cost thin film photovoltaics technology. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of OSCs has overpassed 16% for single junction and 17% for organic–organic tandem solar cells with the development of low bandgap organic materials synthesis and device processing technology. The main barrier of commercial use of OSCs is the poor stability of devices. Herein, the factors limiting the stability of OSCs are summarized. The limiting stability factors are oxygen, water, irradiation, heating, metastable morphology, diffusion of electrodes and buffer layers materials, and mechanical stress. The recent progress in strategies to increase the stability of OSCs is surveyed, such as material design, device engineering of active layers, employing inverted geometry, optimizing buffer layers, using stable electrodes and encapsulation materials. The International Summit on Organic Photovoltaic Stability guidelines are also discussed. The potential research strategies to achieve the required device stability and efficiency are highlighted, rendering possible pathways to facilitate the viable commercialization of OSCs.
Highlights
As Organic solar cells (OSCs) exhibited considerable potentials from the power conversion efficiency (PCE) perspective, photovoltaics technology
We propose that the stability test with a high temperature over 100 °C can be useful for organic materials, while it is unnecessary for the lifetime test of the OSC
The photovoltaic parameters after the test duration if available are shown in the bracket and maintained PCE ratio after the test represented as PCE/PCE0 is shown as a separate column
Summary
OSCs are highly sophisticated devices and show uncontrollable stability even without extrinsic degradation factors. They pointed out that the high stability of a blended system can result from its ideal miscibility that the initially optimized morphology is locally at the thermodynamic equilibrium. The diffusion of carriers’ transport layers and electrodes can change the energy levels of each layer and cause traps in the active layer, which accelerates the non-radiative charge recombination.[27]
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