The Future of Flexible Organic Solar Cells

Abstract Extensive efforts have been devoted during the last decade to organic solar cell research that has led to remarkable progress and achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in excess of 10%. Among the existing flexible organic solar cells, ultrathin organic solar cells with a total thickness <10 µm have important advantages, including good mechanical bending stabilities and good conformability. These advantages have led to power generation solutions for wearable electronics. In this essay, the progress of flexible and ultrathin organic solar cells, and the future research directions pertaining to these cells are discussed based on the potential applications of textile‐compatible solar cells. Both process engineering and development of the material of ultrathin substrate films have improved the PCE of ultrathin organic solar cells, which in turn have led to the small PCE difference between flexible organic solar cells with substrate thickness >10 µm and ultrathin organic solar cells with substrate thickness ≤10 µm. Key technologies for the further improvement of PCE of flexible/ultrathin organic solar cells are discussed. Strategies to improve the stability and some important aspects, which determine the mechanical robustness of flexible organic solar cells, are also presented and discussed.