Question: Are plastic solar cells the same as organic solar cells that produce elecricity from sunlight using polymers?

Jarvist Moore Frost answered on 13 Mar 2012:

Yep!
‘Organic’ in chemistry means made from Carbon containing compounds (it’s not to do with growing plants). ‘Plastic’ is the another general word for ‘polymer’ which is a big molecule made form joining lots of little ones together.
The most efficient organic solar cells, and the ones I work on, are plastic solar cells. In particular, they’re made out of mixing together a conjugated polymer (a conducting plastic, that absorbs light strongly) and a Buckminsterfullerene (a bucky ball!) derivative.