Printable Solar Cells from Advanced Solution-Processible Materials

Considering the terawatt global demand for energy, studies on renewable energy resources are regarded as one of the most important issues. Among the available renewable energy resources, solar energy is a strong candidate because of its abundance and clean nature. Traditional solar cells are typically not cost effective for large-scale implementation given the high processing costs. Solution-processible solar cells have been of great interest among researchers over the past few decades in an effort to lower the costs of solar technologies because they are more affordable than conventional solar technologies. In this review, we provide an overview of the major solution-processible thin-film solar cell technologies by focusing on three representative fields: polymeric organic, inorganic chalcogenide, and organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells. This review describes the historical development, material properties, device structures, and highest performance of each technology under a single-junction configuration. In addition, the challenges of each technology and the future outlook are briefly discussed.