A basic organic solar cell consists of a thin film of organic semiconductors sandwiched between two electrodes which extract charges generated in the organic semiconductor layer to the external circuit. It has long been assumed that 100% of the surface of each electrode should be electrically conductive to maximise the efficiency of charge extraction.
Scientists at the University of Warwick have discovered that the electrodes in organic solar cells actually only need ?1% of their surface area to be electrically conductive to be fully effective, which opens the door to using a range of composite materials at the interface between the electrodes and the light harvesting organic semiconductor layers to improve device performance and reduce cost. The discovery, published today (11 September), is reported in Advanced Functional Materials.
