Scientists at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg have a designed a new organic, single-junction solar cell that has set a new record in terms of performance. With the help of a series of optimizations, the researchers have achieved an efficiency of 12.25% on a surface area of one square centimeter. This non-fullerene-based cell is a new benchmark in the field of organic solar cells, which have continued to witness vast advancements over the years.
The new cell system uses polymer layers instead of the conventionally used silicon. Researchers state that the polymer layers can be directly deposited from a solution on a supporting film. This makes the cells will have significantly lower manufacturing costs and will be more flexible. As such, these cells can be used more easily as compared to conventional silicon solar modules in urban settings.
Standardization Led to Record High Efficiency
The massive improvement in durability and performance in the new cell can open the doors for commercial use of organic hybrid printed solar cells. However, for the actual development of practical prototypes, the technology needs to first transfer from laboratory dimensions to the standard size of one square centimeter. Scaling incurs significant losses too. Nevertheless, scientists were also able to notably bring down the losses in a recent project.
New Organic Molecule Replaces Fullerenes
For a very long time, fullerenes were considered ideal materials to act as acceptors in photovoltaic modules. Fullerenes are carbon-based nanoparticles, which suffer from intrinsic losses and the solar cells based on fullerene-based composites showcase limited potential. The new work, however, is based on a new organic molecule that has demonstrated significantly higher light absorption capacity as compared to fullerenes. As a result, the resultant modules have been able to demonstrate the record 12.25% conversion efficiency for solution-based organic single-junction photovoltaic module.