Aerosol jet printed grid for ITO-free inverted organic solar cells

Kopola, Pälvi; Zimmermann, Birger; Filipovic, A.; Schleiermacher, Hans-Frieder; Greulich, Johannes; Rousu, Sanna; Hast, Jukka; Myllylä, Risto; Würfel, Uli

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2012.06.042

Cited by 80 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Scaling up the active area from 0.09 cm 2 to 6 cm 2 resulted in effi ciency losses of about 20% for ITObased devices on a glass substrate. [ 18,20,21 ] The advantage of ITOfree solar cells has been previous demonstrated. [ 25 ] It has been shown that only one dimension of the electrode is relevant for device effi ciency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The high price of ITO is driven by the limited amount of indium available on the planet, thereby hindering low-cost photovoltaic energy conversion. [11][12][13][14][15] The metal current-collecting grids can be produced by different methods; for example, they can be printed, [ 11,14,[16][17][18] produced using evaporation with a shadow mask, [ 19 ] or structured via photolithography. There are several alternatives for ITO that have been investigated; these include graphite, [1][2][3][4] carbon nanotubes, [ 1,[5][6][7] and highly conducting polymers, e.g., poly (3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are several alternatives for ITO that have been investigated; these include graphite, [1][2][3][4] carbon nanotubes, [ 1,[5][6][7] and highly conducting polymers, e.g., poly (3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). [ 18,[20][21][22] Cheknane [ 23 ] has performed a comparative study between a linear and a circular geometry and has demonstrated an enhanced effi ciency for the circular geometry. To decrease resistive losses during up-scaling, metallic grids can be included in the structure of organic solar cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scaling Up ITO‐Free Solar Cells

Galagan

Coenen

Zimmermann

et al. 2013

Advanced Energy Materials

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A recent development, which happens to be also one of the most important conclusions, in the fi eld of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is that indium tin oxide (ITO) should be omitted as the transparent electrode in organic solar cells. The high price of ITO is driven by the limited amount of indium available on the planet, thereby hindering low-cost photovoltaic energy conversion. Moreover, the brittleness of ITO limits the mechanical stability of fl exible organic solar cells. There are several alternatives for ITO that have been investigated; these include graphite, [1][2][3][4] carbon nanotubes, [ 1,[5][6][7] and highly conducting polymers, e.g., poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). [8][9][10] However, the conductivity of these materials is not high enough for usage in large-area devices. To decrease resistive losses during up-scaling, metallic grids can be included in the structure of organic solar cells. The combination of a metal grid and a layer of highly conductive PEDOT:PSS seems to be a very promising alternative for the commonly used ITO electrode. [11][12][13][14][15] The metal current-collecting grids can be produced by different methods; for example, they can be printed, [ 11,14,[16][17][18] produced using evaporation with a shadow mask, [ 19 ] or structured via photolithography. [ 12 ] These production methods enable a design freedom of the grid geometry. In order to reduce resistive losses, the geometry of the grids needs to be optimized. The design of current-collecting grids is a compromise between shading losses and resistive losses, caused by series resistances. This trade-off has been theoretically optimized for several device architectures, including ITO-free concepts that have been presented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). [ 18,[20][21][22] Cheknane [ 23 ] has performed a comparative study between a linear and a circular geometry and has demonstrated an enhanced effi ciency for the circular geometry. From another study [ 13 ] comparing linear and honeycomb grid structures, it was clear that with the same grid spacing the honeycomb structures provide higher shading losses and reduced short-circuit current densities ( J SC ). With identical grid surface coverage for lines and honeycomb patterns, the line pattern has a smaller grid spacing, providing a better fi ll factor (FF). Experimental and theoretical studies on the relationship between grid spacing and effi ciency of polymer solar cells with linear grid structures has also been presented; [ 12 ] these studies showed that the efficiency of the cells increases with decreasing grid spacing, and at some point, the effi ciency starts to drop due to shading losses as expected from the theoretical work. Thus, for high-conductivity PEDOT:PSS, with a sheet resistance of 500 Ω / ᮀ in combination with 325-μ m-wide grid lines, the optimal grid spacing is 2.5-3.3 mm for a cell size of 2 cm × 2 cm. Decreasing the width of the grid to 180 μ m increases the effi ciency and shifts the optimum grid ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scaling Up ITO‐Free Solar Cells

Galagan

Coenen

Zimmermann

et al. 2013

Advanced Energy Materials

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“…Hoey et al 3 reviewed research works about AJP and analyzed the physics behind different aerosol jet systems. Silver tracks deposited by AJP were investigated by Kopola et al 28 Mahajan et al 29 studied the influence of process parameters on the geometry of aerosol-jet-printed silver lines. Choppali et al 30 investigated aerosol-jet-printed line widths of zinc oxide as a function of the applied impact exhaust flow rate and atomizer gas rate.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Additive Manufacturing Technologies Compared: Morphology of Deposits of Silver Ink Using Inkjet and Aerosol Jet Printing

Seifert

Sowade

Roscher

et al. 2015

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

234

157

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We report about a detailed comparison of the additive manufacturing methods inkjet printing (IJP) and aerosol jet printing (AJP). Both technologies are based on the direct-writing approach enabling the non-contact deposition of various materials in flexible patterns, e.g., for printed electronic applications. The deposited pattern elements were classified as (i) drops (IJP) or splats (AJP), (ii) lines, and (iii) squares. These elements can be considered as basic elements of the deposition systems and also of printed electronics. The pattern elements were deposited with IJP and AJP using the same silver nanoparticle ink. After printing, the layers were characterized regarding their morphology by optical and topographical measurement methods as well as regarding their electrical characteristics. It turned out that drops deposited with IJP and splats deposited with AJP can have similar dimensions. However, the shapes of the deposits differ widely. In the case of lines, AJP enables narrower line widths and thinner line thicknesses in comparison to IJP. In IJP, the line morphology varies depending on the direction of the deposition. Finally, the morphology of the deposited lines determines the electrical conductivity. For printed squares, the IJP layers show much higher layer thickness and a different layer topography compared with AJP as result of a higher volume per area deposition of materials

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“…[43,54,55]), synthesis of new polymers or graphene as a flexible substrate for PV devices (e.g. [54,[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]) and synthesis of new polymers as hole transporting layer (HTL) instead of PEDOT:PSS in polymer solar cells (e.g. [68][69][70][71]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%