Printable polymer or hybrid solar cells (PSCs) have the potential to become one of the leading technologies of the 21st century in conversion of sunlight to electrical energy. Because of their ease of processing from solution fast and low cost mass production of devices is possible in a roll-to-roll printing fashion. The performance of such printed devices, in turn, is determined to a large extent by the three-dimensional organization of the photoactive layer, i.e. layer where light is absorbed and converted into free electrical charges, and its contacts with the charge collecting electrodes. In this review I briefly introduce our current understanding of morphology-performance relationships in PSCs with specific focus on electron tomography as analytical tool providing volume information with nanometer resolution.

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DOI: 10.1016/S1369-7021(10)70182-6