Slot-die processing and encapsulation of non-fullerene based ITO-free organic solar cells and modules

Abstract

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices have shown remarkable performance progress in recent years, reaching current record power conversion efficiency (PCE) values of 16.4% for single junction and 17.3% for multi junction devices, owing mostly to the impressive developments made within synthesis of new non-fullerene acceptors. This progress places organic solar cells at the forefront of thin-film photovoltaic technology. However, in order to meet industrial demands and reach high performance values in industrial settings, further research and development efforts within Roll-to-Roll (R2R) and Sheet-to-Sheet (S2S) processing of OPV devices under ambient conditions are required. Furthermore, OPV modules being manufactured through such up-scaled processing techniques should ideally be developed from low cost materials, and show good stability towards various different operational stress conditions. In this work, we demonstrate combined R2R and S2S development of ITO-free OPV devices, which are based on the non-fullerene material system PBDB-T:ITIC. The 2 devices are processed from R2R vacuum sputtering and S2S slot-die coating at ambient conditions, and reach cell PCE values of 5.5%. In addition, we introduce a correlation between different barrier films, both commercial and sputtered inorganic coatings on ultra-clean PET, and the lifetime of the developed devices. The results therefore demonstrate an important step in the development of OPV devices from R2R and S2S processes in industrial settings.

Degradation Behavior of Scalable Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells Assessed by Outdoor and Indoor ISOS Stability Protocols

“…These were then coated with a commercial ZnO nanoparticle solution (Genes'ink -H-SZ01034) via sheet-to-sheet slot-die coating (slot-die head height 200 μm, speed 12 mm s À1 , pumping speed 50 μL min À1 , and temperature 60 C) and annealed in a vacuum oven at 100 C for 10 min. This was followed by slot-die coating (Figure 1b,d) of the active layer (materials obtained from Brilliant Matters Inc.) from a solution with either a mixture of poly[(5,6-difluoro-2,1,3-benzothiadiazol-4,7-diyl)-alt-(3,3 0 00 -di (2-octyldodecyl)-2,2 0 ;5 0 ,2 00 ;5 00 ,2 0 00 -quaterthiophen-5,5 0 00 -diyl)] (PCE11) and pheyl-C 60/70 -butyric acid methyl ester (PC 60/70 BM) (PCE11:PC 60/70 BM 1: [6] The PCE11:PC 60/70 BM mixture was deposited at 60 C with a slot die head height of 350 μm, a speed of 12.5 mm s À1 , and pumping speed 90 μL min À1 . The PCE12: ITIC mixture was deposited at 70 C with a slot-die head height of 200 μm, a speed of 6.3 mm s À1 , and pumping speed 35 μL min À1 .…”

Overview of printing and coating techniques in the production of organic photovoltaic cells

“…When research on organic photovoltaic cells (OPV) focuses on a particular aspect, such as conversion efficiency, other equally important areas of research can be overlooked while they share the same importance when it comes to achieving the goal of stable cells, efficient and low cost, prepared by very fast processing techniques. [3][4][5] Sampaio and González 6 state that there is a continuous effort to improve efficiency and reduce solar cell costs.…”

“…Thus, more research and development efforts in roll-to-roll processing are needed to meet large-area manufacturing and industrial demands, as well as must be treated and taken into account cost, operational stability, and energy conversion efficiency to be addressed and taken into account before any importance can be attributed to OPVs. [3][4][5][7][8][9][10] It should be noted that the organic photovoltaic cell is composed of several layer, 7 and some printing and coating techniques are more suitable than others for a certain type of layer. 8 The printing and coating techniques available cover a wide range of application methods.…”

Flexible ITO-Free Roll-Processed Large-Area Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells Based on P3HT:O-IDTBR

“…Recently, large-scale devices (59.52 cm 2 ) were fabricated with this exact blend on ITO-coated glass substrates, achieving an impressive 5% power conversion efficiency (PCE) [21]. Using ITO-free substrates, a 5.5% PCE was recently reported using a different material system, slot-die-coated on a sheet-to-sheet platform [22]. There have been no reports previously on P3HT:O-IDTBR OSCs slot-die-coated on ITO-free flexible substrates fabricated on a roll-processing platform, which mimics large-scale full roll-to-roll processing.…”

“…There have been no reports previously on P3HT:O-IDTBR OSCs slot-die-coated on ITO-free flexible substrates fabricated on a roll-processing platform, which mimics large-scale full roll-to-roll processing. We strongly believe there is a need to enhance the performance of nonfullerene OSCs fabricated using scalable deposition techniques [22,23].…”