Organic solar cells with eco-friendly preparation to achieve an efficiency of 20%

Thin film organic photovoltaics (OPVs) aspire to extract solar energy in a green, high efficiency, and cost-effective pathway, offering a sustainable solution to energy and ecosystem. We take the effort of developing low ecological harmful solvent processing of OPV devices and mini-modules, to strengthen the environmental benefits of OPV. New formula utilizing safer solvents enhanced with additives affords an optimal laboratory device efficiency of 20% as well as superior operational and thermal stability. Mini-module shows an efficiency up to 17.6% in upscaled processing, representing the highest performance for green solvent OPV development. Suitable nanoscaled phase separation is obtained in together with a micron-scale surface wrinkle pattern from the new developed processing strategy. Thus efficient photon-to-electron conversion at nano-interfaces and light extraction in broader receiving angles is achieved, which allows for more flexible installation geometries in building-integrated applications.