A review on organic photovoltaic cell

The objective of this article is to identify how organic photovoltaic cells have been addressed in scientific studies published until 2022. To this end, a literature review was conducted, which involved the search for articles through the Advanced Search tool of the Periodicals portal of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, as well as the preparation of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to assist in the classifying the articles, followed by a structured analysis of the structure, operating principle, materials, performance parameters, stability/life span/degradation, challenges, opportunities, and applications of organic photovoltaic cells. The results of this research point out that organic photovoltaic devices are formed by electrodes (anode, such as indium-tin oxide, silver nanowires, carbon nanotubes and graphene and cathode, such as calcium, barium, or aluminum), hole transport layers (PEDOT:PSS), and electrons (ZnO or the TiO2), as well as by the active layer (donor, such as P3HT or PTB7, and acceptor, such as C60 and C70 fullerenes and their PCBM derivatives, as well as non-fulerene acceptors). We further identify that the working principle of organic photovoltaic cells consists in the generation of photocurrent from the absorption of a photon that results in an exciton, this in turn diffuses to the donor–acceptor interface, and disassociates into free carriers, which carry collected charges to the electrodes. We find that organic photovoltaic cells are simple to manufacture, less expensive, more flexible, lightweight, and that the development of these devices has advanced in recent years. However, for practical relevance, some challenges need to be overcome, including power conversion efficiency, stability, degradation, lifetime, as well as fabrication of large areas through roll-to-roll methods.