Low‐cost upscaling compatibility of five different ITO‐free architectures for polymer solar cells

Abstract

Five different indium-tin-oxide free (ITO-free) polymer solar cell architectures provided by four participating research institutions that all presented a laboratory cell performance sufficient for use in mobile and information and communication technology (ICT) were evaluated based on photovoltaic performance and lifetime tests according to the ISOS protocols. The comparison of the different device architectures was performed using the same active material (P3HT: PCBM) and tested against an ITO-based reference device. The active area was 1 cm2 and rigid glass or flexible polyester substrates were employed. The performance results were corroborated by use of a round robin methodology between the four participating laboratories (DTU/DK, ECN/NL, Frauenhofer ISE/DE, and the Holst Centre/NL), while the lifetime testing experiments were carried out in only one location (DTU). Five different lifetime testing experiments were carried out for a minimum of 1000 h: (1) shelf life (according to ISOS-D-1); (2-3) stability under continuous 1 sun illumination (1000 Wm-2, AM1.5G) at low (37 ± 3°C) and high (80 ± 5°C) temperatures (according to ISOS-L-1 and ISOS-L-2); (4) stability under continuous low-light conditions at 0.1 sun (100 Wm -2, AM1.5G, 32°C) (according to ISOS-LL); (5) continuous illumination (670 Wm-2, AM1.5G) at high temperature (65°C) and high humidity (50% RH) (according to ISOS-L-3). Finally, the upscaling compatibility of these device architectures based on the device photovoltaic behavior, stability and scalability were identified and we confirm that an architecture that presents a high score in only one aspect of the solar cell performance is not sufficient to justify an investment in upscaling. Many will require further technical development

Reversible degradation in ITO-containing organic photovoltaics under concentrated sunlight

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Removal of expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) from the architecture of organic solar cells contributes towards further decreasing the manufacturing cost. 14 The understanding of the degradation mechanism in devices with different architectures is a first step to get stable OPV devices and modules. The latter is more cost-efficient in comparison with vacuum deposition of ITO.…”

Organic Semiconductors

“…A detailed discussion on this issue is far beyond the scope of this paper: in one sentence, the stability of BHJ ISCs is still a matter of debate [29]. For example, it is not clear how and to what extent the particular process used for preparing metal oxide layers can affect the final device stability [135], nor which is the particular "best" device structure [136]. One comprehensive study on the stability of several ETL/HTL combinations has recently been performed by Voroshazi and coworkers [137].…”

Experimental study on impact and spreading of SiO2nanoparticle colloidal suspension droplets

“…특히 최근에는 고분 자 물질을 잉크로 이용하여 태양전지나 트랜지스터와 같 은 구조물을 인쇄하는 3차원 인쇄기술이 차세대 성장 동 력으로 주목받고 있다. (3)(4)(5)(6) Rioboo등 (7) 은 액적이 고체표면에 충돌할 때 일어나는 현상을 kinematic, spreading, relaxation, wetting 그리고 equilibrium의 다섯 단계로 구분하였다. 초기속도 V0로 …”