Silver Mesh Electrodes via Electroless Deposition-Coupled Inkjet-Printing Mask Technology for Flexible Polymer Solar Cells

Abstract

The application of metal grids as flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs) in optoelectronic devices is significantly influenced by poor adhesion and thickness difference between the metal and the substrate, resistance distribution uniformity, and a high annealing temperature. Direct inkjet printing of the metal mesh can overcome junction resistance while maintaining high conductivity, but the metal mesh thickness is still unsatisfactory. In addition, inkjet printing of mechanically durable metal FTEs directly on flexible substrates is challenging because of the high-temperature sintering treatment. Electroless deposition is a well-established method for low-cost and large-scale deposition of metal films. Here, ultrathin and ultraflexible Ag mesh@polydopamine (PDA)/poly­(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) FTEs were fabricated by integrating inkjet-printed polymer matrices on a PDA-modified flexible PET substrate to form consecutive patterns as a mask and performing subsequent electroless deposition of the Ag mesh. The FTEs exhibit an excellent sheet resistance (R s) of 9 Ω/sq with 89.9% transmittance. The resultant polymer solar cells show a superior power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.24% with 1 cm2 area and feature excellent flexural endurance (81% of initial PCE after 1500 bending cycles) and operational reliability (83% of initial PCE after 30 days). This ecofriendly and large-area fabrication technique has potential for future commercial applications of wearable electronics.

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

“…[351] OSCs with the structure PET/s-Ag grids@PDA/PEDOT:PSS/PTB7-Th:PC 71 BM/Ca/Al showed PCEs of 6.4%, J SC s of 13.20 mA cm −2 , V OC s of 0.77 V, and FFs of 63% (Table 1). One year later, the same group collaborated in two interesting works, [352,353] where they again proposed again the same approach, that is, the preparation of a flexible metal-mesh electrode based on Ag mesh@PDA/PET, but they improved the preparation methods. At first, they combined electroless plating and inkjet printing.…”

Flexible transparent electrodes based on metallic micro–nano architectures for perovskite solar cells

“…Ordered MMNAs are a kind of metal mesh or grid with regular micro-nano primary cells and periods. The metal grids can be fabricated by ink-jet printing, [156][157][158] screen printing, 159 gravure printing, 43,160,161 self-assembling, 82 lithographic imprinting, 132,133 laser direct writing, 65,134 electrochemical deposition, 135,136 thermal evaporation, 162 or the combination process of these methods. 163,164 Among these methods, printing methods are widely used to fabricate flexible metal grids, due to the low processing temperature and large-scale accessibility.…”

Recent Progress on Emerging Transparent Metallic Electrodes for Flexible Organic and Perovskite Photovoltaics

“…Different from the randomly aligned metal NWs, patterned metal meshes/grids typically have well‐defined and highly ordered geometry designs which can be precisely controlled through the fabrication process. A wide range of methods can be employed for fabricating these electrodes, including photolithography, [ 14 ] nanoimprint lithography, [ 100 ] electroplating, [ 101 ] thermal or e‐beam evaporation, [ 102,103 ] gravure offset printing, [ 104 ] inkjet printing, [ 105 ] spin coating, [ 106 ] etc. The designs of square grids for metal meshes have been widely adopted for transparent electrodes, while other geometries exist and the detailed discussion may be found in other studies.…”