Hybrid Photovoltaics – from Fundamentals towards Application

In hybrid photovoltaics, an organic and an inorganic semiconductor are combined in the active layer, with the advantages of both material classes in a single device. The organic component contributes towards the possibility for wet chemical device preparation with potentially low costs in combination with achieving flexible devices. From the inorganic component an increase in stability, as well as superior opto-electronic properties, is added. Given the large diversity of organic and inorganic semiconductors, a large number of possible realizations of hybrid solar cells emerge. In the present review, we limit to hybrid solar cells which combine conjugated polymers with inorganic materials such as titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, silicon, germanium and quantum dots to keep focused. Particular emphasis is put on different routes to tailor nanostructures, such as the use of semiconductor block copolymers. The inorganic component is either synthesized directly in one of the blocks or added as a pre-synthesized nanomaterial to form the hybrid material. Alternatively, the block copolymer is used as a structure-directing template in a sol–gel synthesis approach to have tailored inorganic nanostructures, which are back-filled with the organic component to fabricate the hybrid material. Hybrid solar cells based on crystalline Si are discussed for comparison.