Highly conductive spray deposited poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly (styrenesulfonate) electrodes for indium tin oxide-free small molecule organic photovoltaic devices

Abstract

Spray deposition is currently attracting significant attention as a low cost method for organic photovoltaic (OPV) device fabrication. We report indium tin oxide (ITO)-free small moleule OPV devices comparing spin coated and spray deposited highly conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as the transparent conducting electrode (TCE). Conductive atomic force microscopy studies indicate that despite an increase in surface roughness, spray deposited PEDOT:PSS TCEs display a similar distribution in the surface composition of PEDOT and PSS and provide comparable device performance to spin coated PEDOT:PSS TCEs. Therefore, the TCEs fabricated by spray deposition show potential as an inexpensive solution processable alternative to the conventionally used ITO TCE for OPV devices.

High voltage hybrid organic photovoltaics using a zinc oxide acceptor and a subphthalocyanine donor

“…The field of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) has attracted considerable attention due to its potential for low cost solar energy conversion and its compatibility with non-rigid substrates. Organic materials allow many fabrication techniques to be employed that are simply not available for inorganic PVs, 1 including the use of printable semiconductors and electrodes, 2 spray coating, 3 and spin coating, 4 as well as the viability of large-scale, low cost production methods such as roll-to-roll processing. 5 Improvements in the performance of OPVs have been achieved through the development of new absorbing materials, the use of interfacial layers, novel multi-stack architectures and through the effective use of dopants.…”

Comparison of dimethyl sulfoxide treated highly conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) electrodes for use in indium tin oxide-free organic electronic photovoltaic devices

“…3g-i) for each image. The PEDOT:PSS UT electrode surface consists predominantly of non-conducting regions with randomly scattered conductive grains 12-26 nm in diameter, as previously reported [34][35][36]. The conductive regions (see supplementary information S.I.…”

Rising advancements in the application of PEDOT:PSS as a prosperous transparent and flexible electrode material for solution-processed organic electronics

“…Conductive thin and uniform PEDOT:PSS polymer films are formed by a wide range of environmentfriendly coating techniques developed to produce highquality solution-processed films at a low cost [16]. The common techniques include spin coating, dip coating, slot die coating, bar coating, spray coating, doctor blading, and drop casting [46,64,68,69]. Some printing technologies, such as roll-to-roll (R2R), screen, and inkjet printing, are also among the wetfilm deposition methods highly suitable for PEDOT:PSS [13,70].…”

“…These applications mainly depend on the transparency and flexibility of this polymer as well as on its compatibility with diverse and large-area fabrication methods like R2R manufacturing, inkjet printing, and spin coating. The impressive development directions in this field include antistatic, protective, or even shielding film coatings for several appliances [14,69], stable polymeric electrolytes for capacitors, effective interfacial and buffer layers [13,33], thermally stable surface coating and binder layers for lithium batteries [75,76], and common solution-processed hole injection layers (HILs) and HTLs for OLEDs, OTFTs, OPVs, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), etc. [13,15,16,37].…”