Organic solar cells (OSCs) are foreseen to be light weight, flexible, and of a high conversion efficiency. But, most OSC electrodes use indium tin oxide, which is too costly and fragile to enable the manufacture of flexible, large-area solar panels with OSCs.

If the indium tin oxide could be replaced, the cells could be not only be made more cheaply, but in many national cases, domestically. Even in an advanced country like South Korea, the production of indium tin oxide was so impracticable, that all such material was imported from abroad.