Collection of scientific works Nanosystems, nanomaterials, nanotechnologies
Year 2025 Volume 23, Issue 4
Download the full version of the article (PDF, In Ukrainian / Українською) Open Access

Kh. B. IVANIUK and O. O. KLYMKEVYCH

Lviv Polytechnic National University, 12 Stepan Bandera Str., UA-79013 Lviv, Ukraine

Organic Solar Cells: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects

1193–1216 (2025)

PACS numbers: 72.40.+w, 73.50.Pz, 81.05.Fb, 84.60.Jt, 88.40.fc, 88.40.hj, 88.40.jr

Received 5 June, 2025; in final form, 8 June, 2025

The modern world faces a growing demand for energy and an urgent need to mitigate the consequences of climate change, necessitating a transition to clean and sustainable energy sources. Solar energy, particularly, photovoltaic technologies, is a promising solution. Organic solar cells (OSCs) offer unique advantages, such as lightweight design, flexibility, semi-transparency, low production costs, and rapid energy-payback time. Despite initially low efficiencies, recent advancements have achieved laboratory efficiencies exceeding 20%. Current research groups are focusing on improving key parameters through the synthesis of new compounds, as well as design and technological upgrades to device architectures. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of OSCs, covering recent advances in materials science, the evolution of device architectures, solutions to stability challenges, and progress in manufacturing and scalability. The review thoroughly examines various materials used in OSCs, including the evolution of polymer donors, the emergence of small-molecule donors, and fully polymeric solar cells. It also discusses different device architectures, from simple single-layer and bilayer structures to more complex tandem OSCs, as well as the importance of functional layers. Each architecture is evaluated in terms of its advantages, limitations, and impact on device performance. Furthermore, the review outlines prospects for the future development of OSCs, focusing on the further development of fullerene derivatives, advancements in tandem architectures, progress in donor polymers and interfacial layers, scalable manufacturing technologies, and integration with other photovoltaic technologies, such as perovskite solar cells.

KEY WORDS: organic solar cells, fullerene, donor, acceptor, heterojunction, exciton

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/nnn.23.04.1193

Citation:
Kh. B. Ivaniuk and O. O. Klymkevych, Organic Solar Cells: Progress, Challenges, and Prospects, Nanosistemi, Nanomateriali, Nanotehnologii, 23, No. 4: 1193–1216 (2025); https://doi.org/10.15407/nnn.23.04.1193
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