Industrial viability of single-component organic solar cells

Although the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs) continue increasing toward the 20% milestone, important factors for industrial application are mostly neglected, such as photostability and cost potential. Singlecomponent OSCs (SCOSCs) employing materials with chemically bonded donor and acceptor moieties successfully overcome the immiscibility between the donor and the acceptor as well as the resultant self-aggregation under external stress. To inspire a broader interest, the industrial figure of merit (i-FoM) of BHJ OSCs and the corresponding SCOSCs is calculated and analyzed, which includes PCE, photostability, and synthetic complexity (SC) index. Despite having a slightly more complex synthesis, all SCOSCs exhibit increased i-FoM values compared with the corresponding BHJ OSCs, and with the increase in efficiency, SCOSCs possess further potential for a higher i-FoM value. With the excellent photostability of nearly all investigated single-component semiconductors, SCOSCs are coming into the focus of attention for industrial utilization.