Development of polymer blend solar cells composed of conjugated donor and acceptor polymers

Abstract

All-polymer solar cells are expected as one of next generation photovoltaics. This paper presents two kinds of polymer/polymer blend solar cells to exemplify the potential advantages compared with conventional organic solar cells. The large difference in the HOMO/LUMO levels of donor/acceptor polymers results in a high voltage, and the large absorptivity up to near-infrared wavelengths allows to increase the photocurrent density. These characteristics are brought by development of a variety of low bandgap polymers. For the further improvement of conversion efficiency, it is a crucial issue to control the phase-separation structure on a nanometer scale. © 2013SPST.