Current Status and Advances for Polymers in the Active Layer of Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Currently, the development and utilization of green energy is a hot research topic in today's society. Among the many new energy technologies, research on organic solar cell panels is receiving significant attention. In recent years, organic solar cells have made tremendous progress. They have evolved from their beginnings in 1839 to now achieving photoelectric conversion efficiencies exceeding 19%. They possess numerous advantages such as low cost, light weight, ultra-thinness, flexibility, and ease of large-area preparation. In the future, they have broad application prospects in fields such as flexible batteries and photovoltaic building power supply. The active layer in organic photovoltaic panels includes acceptors and donors, which are important factors determining the efficiency of photovoltaic cells. With the development of science and technology, many materials in the active layer have been significantly improved, such as thiophene compounds, graphene compounds, and non-graphene compounds. The development of these materials has expanded the spectral absorption range of the active layer, optimized energy level matching, and greatly improved device efficiency. Compared with traditional inorganic solar cell panels, their conversion efficiency is not yet outstanding, and there are still many problems to be solved.