Monolayer polymer photocells. The opportunities

Abstract

The conversion of solar energy into electricity is in the focus of a large number of scientists. Because of the problems caused by the use of fossil fuels, the use of renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources is desirable, and in some countries the use of a certain percentage of such energy sources becomes a legal obligation. Today there are commercially available silicon solar cells with prices ranging from 800 USD/kW (about 10 m2/kW) and efficiency in the range of 10-20%. The main obstacle to a wide use of these energy sources is the high price of such generated electric power in comparison to the costs of electricity from classical sources (hydro, thermal and nuclear power plants). Technological progress has been made in the development of polymer-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells, and their energy efficiency is approaching the value of 10%, whereas the price per unit of output can be significantly lower than silicon solar cells. A shortcoming of OPV solar cells is their short life, and that is why they did not find a wider application. A single-layer polymer photovoltaic is characterized by a simple design and potentially very low production cost. It can be assumed that because of these properties, the polymer monolayer photocell can become a cheap substitute for widespread photocells based on classic semiconductors. In this article, the existing published achievements in the development of a monolayer polymer solar cell аre presented, and also the original solutions that are the result of investigations conducted by the authors.