Publication date: 4th October 2024
According to International Energy Outlook 2021 published by Energy Information Administration (EIA), global energy consumption will be double by 2050. Therefore, finding alternative energy sources is an urgent and pressing problem. Sunlight is by far the most abundant source of energy on Earth and, if harvested, can address the energy demands in the future. Organic solar cells (OSCs) potentially can offer low cost, large area, flexible, light-weight, clean, and quiet energy sources for indoor and outdoor applications such as IoT, energy-efficient buildings and greenhouses. OSCs using non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) have garnered a lot of attention during the past few years and shown dramatic increases in the power conversion efficiency (PCE). PCEs higher than 19% for single-junction systems have been achieved, but the device lifetime is still too short for practical applications. In this talk, I will discuss the current progress and remaining challenges of OPVs and our effort on solving these challenges including green solvent processing, understanding degradation mechanisms, and improving the device lifetime.