High-performance semi-transparent polymer solar cells possessing tandem structures

Abstract

In this study we employed tandem device architectures to tune the external appearance and light-conversion properties of polymer solar cells (PSCs) from visibly transparent to semi-transparent, making them more versatile for integrated photovoltaic applications and more efficient under solar illumination. Our best transparent solar cell was a tandem PSC exhibiting an efficiency of 6.4% and a maximum transmission of 51% at 550 nm; in contrast, a semi-transparent tandem PSC having an average transmission of 30% in the visible range exhibited an efficiency greater than 7%. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.