Natural Materials for Sustainable Organic Solar Cells: Status and Challenge

Abstract

The exploitation of natural materials has received growing attention because of the needs of environmental sustainability. In contrast to petroleum-based synthetic materials, natural materials possess significant advantages of abundant, low-cost, degradable, and renewable. Here, the recent research status of natural materials as flexible substrate, cathode interfacial material, and anode interfacial material for organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are first presented. Then, the confronted key challenges that limit the widespread application of natural materials for OPVs is summarized, including complex multilength scaled aggregation morphology, non-conjugated structure, and unclear working mechanism. Finally, their potential solutions from the perspective of chemical structure are proposed for constructing efficient OPVs. It is believed that natural materials have a broad landscape in low-cost and green manufacturing technology for OPVs in the future.