High-efficiency semitransparent organic solar cells with non-fullerene acceptor for window application

Abstract

Organic solar cells possess multiple desirable traits, such as low cost, flexibility, and semitransparency, which opens up potential avenues unavailable to other solar technologies, a prime example of this being window applications. For this specific application, a delicate balance between the transmission of light through the device and power conversion efficiency (PCE), dependent on the amount of light absorbed, must be optimized. Here, we report a high-efficiency semitransparent device based on a novel fullerene-free material system. Using an active layer based on the material system PBDB-T:ITIC, optimized devices exhibited PCEs exceeding 7% while also achieving an average visible transmittance (AVT) of 25%. The concurrent demonstration of high efficiency with an AVT of 25% represents a notable step forward for semitransparent organic solar cells. Additionally, the influence of the active layer thickness on the color rendering properties of these cells was studied. Optimization of the active layer thickness can lead to high-efficiency cells, with high visible transmission as well as the ability to display an image accurately.