Fully sprayed, ITO-free, flexible organic solar cells

Organic solar cells are a promising candidate for a future of ubiquitous, low-cost solar power harvesting. While this promise is founded on easily scalable, large-area solution processing techniques, most of the scientific research community uses small-scale deposition methods convenient for the lab like spin coating in inert atmosphere and vacuum processing, which are not scalable. In this work, we use an automated spray roboter in ambient conditions to deposit all layers of the solar cell (reflective electrode, transparent electrode, active material blend and blocking layers). The layers are independently optimized and eventually put together in one fully sprayed device. By replacing brittle and expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) with silver nanowires (AgNW) and conductive polymers (PEDOT:PSS) for the transparent electrode, the use of flexible foil substrates is enabled and mechanical stability is studied by bending tests.     «

Organic solar cells are a promising candidate for a future of ubiquitous, low-cost solar power harvesting. While this promise is founded on easily scalable, large-area solution processing techniques, most of the scientific research community uses small-scale deposition methods convenient for the lab like spin coating in inert atmosphere and vacuum processing, which are not scalable. In this work, we use an automated spray roboter in ambient conditions to deposit all layers of the solar cell (ref...     »