Polymer Solar Cells

Polymer solar cells are developing rapidly. The cost effective manufacturing, flexibility and the integration possibilities make them attractive alternatives to conventional Si-based solar cells. Power conversion efficiencies more than 8% were reported recently by industrial companies. However, even this value has to be improved to be competitive with the other solar cell devices. There is a great amount of interdisiplinary science to be explored within the organic solar cell research, ranging from solid state device physics, photophysics, polymer synthesis, polymer processing and supramolecular chemistry. In this encyclopedia entry, we give an overview of the basic operational principles, limitations and the possible improvements for polymer solar cells.

Keywords: polymer solar cells; organic solar cells; conjugated polymers; organic photovoltaics