The latest OPV (Organic Solar Cell) technology jointly created by Mr Liu Feng’s team from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics has been updated to 18.2% and the conversion efficiency to 18.07%, setting a new record.

Organic solar cells are solar cells whose core part is composed of organic materials. Mainly use organic matter with photosensitive properties as semiconductor materials, and generate voltage to form current by the photovoltaic effect, to achieve the effect of solar power generation.

At present, the solar cells we see are mainly silicon-based solar cells, which are quite different from organic solar cells, but the history of the two is almost the same. The first silicon-based solar cell was manufactured in 1954. The first organic solar cell was born in 1958. However, the fate of the two is opposite. Silicon-based solar cells are currently the mainstream solar cells, while organic solar cells are rarely mentioned, mainly because of the low conversion efficiency.

 

Fortunately, thanks to the rapid development of China’s photovoltaic industry, in addition to enterprises, there are also many scientific research institutions developing solar cells from different technical routes, so that organic solar cells have achieved certain development, and have achieved this record-breaking performance. However, compared to the performance of silicon-based solar cells, organic solar cells still need greater progress.