Organic materials for photovoltaic applications: Review and mechanism

•The organic solar cell mechanism, design and recent developments are presented.•Recent articles are reviewed to understand the photocurrent generation.•Sketched out the search for alternative efficient organic materials for OPVs.

Recently Heliatek have reported the 12% certified efficiency of organic photovoltaic (OPVs). This rapid progress suggests that the commercialization of OPVs will be realized soon. In addition to the achievement of such high efficiency in OPVs, yet there is a wide need of improvements e.g. the need of electron-acceptors materials other than fullerene, better understanding of charge-transport mechanism in organic materials, requirement of the material compatible with the flexible substrate, durability of the organic materials based devices etc. The aim of this paper is to review the recent developments in OPVs and the potentials of organic photovoltaic, which has caught the attention of many researchers working in the field of optoelectronics. In this article, the organic solar cell mechanism, the basic design, the recent developments and the efficient organic materials for OPVs are reviewed. The authors have reviewed the recent articles to understand the mechanisms of photocurrent generation and sketched out the search for alternative materials for these devices.