IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v84y2018icp43-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fundamentals of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells: An overview of stability/degradation issues and strategies for improvement

Author

Listed:
  • Rafique, Saqib
  • Abdullah, Shahino Mah
  • Sulaiman, Khaulah
  • Iwamoto, Mitsumasa

Abstract

In the last few years, the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) based on bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure has remarkably improved. However, for a large scale roll to roll (R2R) manufacturing of this technology and precise device fabrication, further improvements are critical. This article highlights the fundamentals of a BHJ OSC, including its working principle and performance characteristics. The importance of stability for the device lifetime is underpinned and different degradation factors affecting the operational life of OSCs are discussed. Lastly, the strategies to improve the stability of OSCs, including the encapsulation of device, morphology control in BHJ layer, interfacial engineering in terms of buffered layers, use of inverted geometry and alternative electrode materials are highlighted. Moreover, a simple mathematical model of degradation trends in OSCs is proposed. This review provides a comprehensive insight into the current status of BHJ OSCs regarding stability/degradation and covers almost all critical aspects that are considered important to understand it.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafique, Saqib & Abdullah, Shahino Mah & Sulaiman, Khaulah & Iwamoto, Mitsumasa, 2018. "Fundamentals of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells: An overview of stability/degradation issues and strategies for improvement," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 43-53.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:84:y:2018:i:c:p:43-53
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2017.12.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032117315526
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2017.12.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sungho Nam & Jooyeok Seo & Sungho Woo & Wook Hyun Kim & Hwajeong Kim & Donal D. C. Bradley & Youngkyoo Kim, 2015. "Inverted polymer fullerene solar cells exceeding 10% efficiency with poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) nanodots on electron-collecting buffer layers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Jaemin Kong & Suhee Song & Minji Yoo & Ga Young Lee & Obum Kwon & Jin Kuen Park & Hyungcheol Back & Geunjin Kim & Seoung Ho Lee & Hongsuk Suh & Kwanghee Lee, 2014. "Long-term stable polymer solar cells with significantly reduced burn-in loss," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Jingbi You & Letian Dou & Ken Yoshimura & Takehito Kato & Kenichiro Ohya & Tom Moriarty & Keith Emery & Chun-Chao Chen & Jing Gao & Gang Li & Yang Yang, 2013. "A polymer tandem solar cell with 10.6% power conversion efficiency," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-10, June.
    4. Chandrasekaran, J. & Nithyaprakash, D. & Ajjan, K.B. & Maruthamuthu, S. & Manoharan, D. & Kumar, S., 2011. "Hybrid solar cell based on blending of organic and inorganic materials--An overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 1228-1238, February.
    5. Yeh, Naichia & Yeh, Pulin, 2013. "Organic solar cells: Their developments and potentials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 421-431.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francisca Werlinger & Camilo Segura & Javier Martínez & Igor Osorio-Roman & Danilo Jara & Seog Joon Yoon & Andrés Fabián Gualdrón-Reyes, 2023. "Current Progress of Efficient Active Layers for Organic, Chalcogenide and Perovskite-Based Solar Cells: A Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-35, August.
    2. Giacomo Capizzi & Grazia Lo Sciuto & Christian Napoli & Rafi Shikler & Marcin Woźniak, 2018. "Optimizing the Organic Solar Cell Manufacturing Process by Means of AFM Measurements and Neural Networks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Kamel, Michael S.A. & Al-jumaili, Ahmed & Oelgemöller, Michael & Jacob, Mohan V., 2022. "Inorganic nanoparticles to overcome efficiency inhibitors of organic photovoltaics: An in-depth review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    4. Alkhalayfeh, Muheeb Ahmad & Aziz, Azlan Abdul & Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir, 2021. "An overview of enhanced polymer solar cells with embedded plasmonic nanoparticles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Boudia Mohamed El Amine & Yi Zhou & Hongying Li & Qiuwang Wang & Jun Xi & Cunlu Zhao, 2023. "Latest Updates of Single-Junction Organic Solar Cells up to 20% Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-12, May.
    6. Ilia Sokolovskii & Ruth H. Tichauer & Dmitry Morozov & Johannes Feist & Gerrit Groenhof, 2023. "Multi-scale molecular dynamics simulations of enhanced energy transfer in organic molecules under strong coupling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Liu, Cheng-Yi & Huang, Chun-Kai & Huang, Yen-Yu & Chang, Kun-Chieh & Yu, Kun-Lin & Chiang, Chien-Hung & Wu, Chun-Guey & Lee, Shih-Chang & Yen, Wei-Yu & Sheu, Jinn-Kong & Shi, Jin-Wei, 2022. "Flexible multijunction solar cells embedded inside smart dust modules for outdoor applications to Smart Grids," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Inayat, Abrar & Raza, Mohsin, 2019. "District cooling system via renewable energy sources: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 360-373.
    2. Cao, Weiran & Li, Zhifeng & Yang, Yixing & Zheng, Ying & Yu, Weijie & Afzal, Rimza & Xue, Jiangeng, 2014. "“Solar tree”: Exploring new form factors of organic solar cells," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 134-139.
    3. Ma, Tao & Guo, Zichang & Shen, Lu & Liu, Xing & Chen, Zhenwu & Zhou, Yong & Zhang, Xiaochun, 2021. "Performance modelling of photovoltaic modules under actual operating conditions considering loss mechanism and energy distribution," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    4. Asim, Nilofar & Sopian, Kamaruzzaman & Ahmadi, Shideh & Saeedfar, Kasra & Alghoul, M.A. & Saadatian, Omidreza & Zaidi, Saleem H., 2012. "A review on the role of materials science in solar cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 5834-5847.
    5. Nieto-Díaz, Balder A. & Crossland, Andrew F. & Groves, Christopher, 2021. "A levelized cost of energy approach to select and optimise emerging PV technologies: The relative impact of degradation, cost and initial efficiency," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    6. Sangmo Kim & Hoang Van Quy & Hyung Wook Choi & Chung Wung Bark, 2020. "Effect of UV-Light Treatment on Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-11, March.
    7. Wasiu Adebayo Hammed & Rosiyah Yahya & Abdulra'uf Lukman Bola & Habibun Nabi Muhammad Ekramul Mahmud, 2013. "Recent Approaches to Controlling the Nanoscale Morphology of Polymer-Based Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-22, November.
    8. Zhenrong Jia & Qing Ma & Zeng Chen & Lei Meng & Nakul Jain & Indunil Angunawela & Shucheng Qin & Xiaolei Kong & Xiaojun Li & Yang (Michael) Yang & Haiming Zhu & Harald Ade & Feng Gao & Yongfang Li, 2023. "Near-infrared absorbing acceptor with suppressed triplet exciton generation enabling high performance tandem organic solar cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Yeh, Pulin & Chang, Chu Hsiang & Shih, Naichien & Yeh, Naichia, 2016. "Durability and efficiency tests for direct methanol fuel cell's long-term performance assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 716-724.
    10. Venkateswari, R. & Sreejith, S., 2019. "Factors influencing the efficiency of photovoltaic system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 376-394.
    11. Jun, H.K. & Careem, M.A. & Arof, A.K., 2013. "Quantum dot-sensitized solar cells—perspective and recent developments: A review of Cd chalcogenide quantum dots as sensitizers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 148-167.
    12. Wang, Qin & Xie, Yu & Soltani-Kordshuli, Firuze & Eslamian, Morteza, 2016. "Progress in emerging solution-processed thin film solar cells – Part I: Polymer solar cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 347-361.
    13. Ciulla, Giuseppina & Lo Brano, Valerio & Di Dio, Vincenzo & Cipriani, Giovanni, 2014. "A comparison of different one-diode models for the representation of I–V characteristic of a PV cell," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 684-696.
    14. Hasan, Ahmed & Sarwar, Jawad & Shah, Ali Hasan, 2018. "Concentrated photovoltaic: A review of thermal aspects, challenges and opportunities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 835-852.
    15. Costas Prouskas & Angelos Mourkas & Georgios Zois & Elefterios Lidorikis & Panos Patsalas, 2022. "A New Type of Architecture of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells as an Alternative Pathway to Outdoor Photovoltaics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-14, March.
    16. Liu, Xuxu & Chen, Huajie & Tan, Songting, 2015. "Overview of high-efficiency organic photovoltaic materials and devices," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1527-1538.
    17. Natarajan Shanmugam & Rishi Pugazhendhi & Rajvikram Madurai Elavarasan & Pitchandi Kasiviswanathan & Narottam Das, 2020. "Anti-Reflective Coating Materials: A Holistic Review from PV Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-93, May.
    18. Myeonghun Song & Sooyong Lee & Dohan Kim & Chulyeon Lee & Jaehoon Jeong & Jooyeok Seo & Hwajeong Kim & Dong-Ik Song & Donghyun Kim & Youngkyoo Kim, 2017. "Charging Characteristics of Lithium Ion Battery Using Semi-Solar Modules of Polymer:Fullerene Solar Cells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-10, November.
    19. Judith A. Cherni & Raúl Olalde Font & Lucía Serrano & Felipe Henao & Antonio Urbina, 2016. "Systematic Assessment of Carbon Emissions from Renewable Energy Access to Improve Rural Livelihoods," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-19, December.
    20. Gracia-Amillo, Ana M. & Bardizza, Giorgio & Salis, Elena & Huld, Thomas & Dunlop, Ewan D., 2018. "Energy-based metric for analysis of organic PV devices in comparison with conventional industrial technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 76-89.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:84:y:2018:i:c:p:43-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.