Prospects and challenges of organic/group IV nanomaterial solar cells

Organic/group IV nanomaterial-based solar cells attract wide research interest in the photovoltaic community because it can benefit from the advantages of both organic and group IV materials. Especially, hybrid composites of conjugated organic materials and nanostructured inorganic materials are potential candidates for cost-effective and efficient solar-energy-harvesting devices. This review highlights recent advances in organic photovoltaics (OPV) as well as organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells (HSCs) based on group IV nanomaterials, including nanostructured carbon and silicon materials which act as acceptors. The donor can be either small molecules or conjugated polymers. The carbon-based functional materials will vary from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to new emerging graphene sheets, which do not include fullerene and its derivatives. The silicon nanostructures include free-standing silicon nanocrystals (NCs) and silicon nanowires (SiNWs).