This research will focus on decreasing the cost of production and enhancing the lifetime of Organic Solar Cells (OSCs) by blending the active layer components with commodity polymers.

OSCs have, in recent years, been given a lot of attention due to their rapidly increasing power conversion efficiencies of up to 17%. However, little attention has been paid to their lifetime and cost of production. In order to meet increasing global energy demand in a sustainable manner the renewable technologies employed must have reasonably long lifetimes and low cost of production so they can compete with fossil fuels.

OSCs tend to have a lifetime in the order of days to months in ambient conditions; this is due to degradation by photooxidation in the presence of water and oxygen. This degradation is therefore a roadblock to their uptake. Self-encapsulation by the addition of commodity polymers may decrease the penetration of water vapour and oxygen preventing degradation and enhancing their lifetime.

Commodity polymers are insulating, inexpensive, readily available and some are even hygroscopic, meaning they can take on water. Integration of these molecules into the active layer can be easily achieved and could have positive effects. Although, the choice of the polymer is crucial as it can affect the morphology of the active layer and therefore can affect the inner workings of the cell. Therefore, more research is needed in order to identify suitable commodity polymers for specific donor acceptor systems.