Highly Transparent Organic Solar Cells with All-Near-Infrared Photoactive Materials

Transparent organic photovoltaics are identified as important components for building-integrated photovoltaics and smart window technologies. In this work, highly transparent organic solar cells (T-OSCs) based on all-near-infrared (NIR) harvesting materials (optical bandgap, (Formula presented.) < 1.4 eV) are first fabricated. Both donor and acceptor materials used in T-OSCs exhibit great transparency in the visible region. After combining MoO₃/Ag or MoO₃/Ag/MoO₃ transparent electrode, T-OSCs show excellent visible light transmittance (VLT) of 52–61.5% with power conversion efficiencies of 3.5–4.2%. As far as it is known, this all-NIR active layer represents the most visible transparent donor–acceptor combination in OSCs. In addition to high VLT, T-OSCs have great aesthetic value, good color-rendering index (CRI > 90), and high light energy utilization properties. This work highlights great potential of NIR photoactive materials for T-OSCs.