Industrial viability of single-component organic solar cells

While power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs) continue increasing towards the 20% milestone, important factors for industrial application are mostly neglected, such as photostability and the cost potential. Single-component organic solar cells (SCOSCs) employing materials with donor and acceptor moieties chemically bonded, successfully overcome the immiscibility between donor and acceptor as well as the resultant self-aggregation under external stress. To inspire a broader interest, the industrial figure of merit (i-FoM) of BHJ OSCs and the corresponding SCOSCs are calculated and analyzed, which includes PCE, photostability, and synthetic complexity (SC) index. Despite slightly more complex synthesis, all SCOSCs exhibit increased i-FoM values than the corresponding BHJ OSCs, and with the increase of efficiency, SCOSCs possess the further potential to a higher i-FoM value. With the excellent photostability for nearly all investigated single component semiconductors, SCOSCs are coming into the focus of attention for industrial utilization