Towards 15% energy conversion efficiency: A systematic study of the solution-processed organic tandem solar cells based on commercially available materials

Li N, Baran D, Forberich K, Machui F, Ameri T, Turbiez M, Carrasco-Orozco M, Drees M, Facchetti A, Krebs FC, Brabec C (2013)

Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2013

Journal

Book Volume: 6

Pages Range: 3407-3413

Journal Issue: 12

DOI: 10.1039/c3ee42307g

Abstract

Owing to the lack of scalable high performance donor materials, studies on mass-produced organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices lag far behind that on lab-scale devices. In this work, we choose 6 already commercially available conjugated polymers and systematically investigate their potential in organic tandem solar cells. All the devices are processed under environmental conditions using doctor-blading, which is highly compatible with mass-production coating technologies. Power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 6-7% are obtained for OPV devices based on different active layers. Optical simulations based on experimental data are performed for all realized tandem solar cells. An efficiency potential of ∼10% is estimated for these compounds in combination with phenyl-C-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as an acceptor. In addition, we assume a hypothetical, optimized acceptor to understand the limitation of donors. It is suggested that a PCE of >14% is realistic for tandem solar cells based on these commercially available donor materials. Along with the demonstration of novel intermediate layers we believe that this systematic study provides valuable insight for those attempting to realize the high efficiency potential of tandem architectures. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

BASF Schweiz AG Switzerland (CH) University of Southampton United Kingdom (GB) Polyera Corp United States (USA) (US) Technical University of Denmark / Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU) Denmark (DK)

How to cite

APA:

Li, N., Baran, D., Forberich, K., Machui, F., Ameri, T., Turbiez, M.,... Brabec, C. (2013). Towards 15% energy conversion efficiency: A systematic study of the solution-processed organic tandem solar cells based on commercially available materials. Energy and Environmental Science, 6(12), 3407-3413. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ee42307g

MLA:

Li, Ning, et al. "Towards 15% energy conversion efficiency: A systematic study of the solution-processed organic tandem solar cells based on commercially available materials." Energy and Environmental Science 6.12 (2013): 3407-3413.

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