Translucent Polymer Solar Cells

Abstract

The recent developments on the construction of translucent cathodes for the application of tandem or multi-junction organic solar cells are reviewed in this report. The translucent cathode plays a major role in determining the efficiency of translucent solar cells by controlling the intensity of incident light absorption at the photoactive layer of each cell. As a result, there are varieties of translucent cathodes based on conductive polymer, thin metallic layer, and transparent conducting oxides (TCO) have been developed by various research groups. A translucent cathode based on a combination of thin metallic (i.e. calcium and silver) and transparent conductive oxide layers (indium tin oxide (ITO)) is developed in our group and the advantages of this translucent cathode for organic solar cell application are presented. In addition, the experimental results obtained from polymeric solar cells, based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)-propyl-1-phenyl-(6,6)C61 (PCBM) blends, and ITO-based translucent cathode, are also presented.