Recent Progress in Advanced Organic Photovoltaics: Emerging Techniques and Materials

Organic photovoltaics have received active research interest during the past 30 years due to their low cost, flexibility, easy scalability, and robustness. Recently, several efforts have been made to enhance their power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability by considering advanced photon harvesting technology, utilization of novel donor–acceptor materials, and optimizing device design strategy. Specifically, the photon multiplication process like singlet fission (SF) and design of novel materials, including low-bandgap conjugated polymers and non-fullerene acceptors (NFA), have led to the development of advanced organic photovoltaics with PCE close to theoretical Shockley–Queisser (SQ) limit. Here, an up-to-date overview of the recent progress during the last five years in advanced organic photovoltaics with a special focus on emerging techniques and materials was reported. Further, various designing and deployment strategies for these processes and materials were explored along with their properties, challenges, and achievements. Finally, a strategy for the next-stage research directions was analyzed and proposed that could drive this field even further beyond laboratory research to reach the final goal of commercialization.