Organic solar cells at 8.3% efficiency

Imec, Polyera and international chemical group Solvay have achieved what they claim is a world-record efficiency of 8.3% for polymer-based single junction organic solar cells in an inverted device stack.

The results represent a crucial step towards successful commercialisation of organic photovoltaic cells.

Organic solar cells are holding promise due to their potential to be manufactured on large areas at high throughput and on lightweight, flexible substrates (like plastic or textiles), reducing transport and installation costs.

This, along with optical translucency, gives organic solar cells the potential to be cheaply integrated into everything from clothing to building facades and windows.

Imec has developed an inverted bulk heterojunction architecture for polymer-based solar cells that simultaneously optimises cell light management and increases device stability. With this architecture and a Polyera semiconductor in the photoactive layer, a team of Imec and Solvay researchers now announces a certified conversion efficiency of 8.3.

Although further improvements of efficiency and lifetime are required to make this technology commercial, inverted device architectures offer a number of benefits.