Printing highly efficient organic solar cells.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Renewable Energy Technologies

Background:

• Organic solar cells offer potential for low-cost, flexible electronics due to printing compatibility.
• Current fabrication methods like spin coating and blading lack direct translation to scalable printing processes.
• Significant morphological challenges exist in adapting bulk heterojunction solar cell fabrication to printing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the challenges of printing organic solar cells.
• To develop novel approaches for inkjet printing bulk heterojunction solar cells.
• To achieve high power conversion efficiency in printed organic solar cells.

Main Methods:

• Investigated morphological challenges in transferring spin-coating/blading to printing.
• Adjusted chemical properties of poly(3-hexylthiophene) polymer donor.
• Utilized a newly developed inkjet solvent mixture for printing poly(3-hexylthiophene):fullerene blends.

Main Results:

• Identified and highlighted previously unreported morphological challenges in printed organic solar cells.
• Gained control over the nanomorphology of poly(3-hexylthiophene):fullerene blends during inkjet printing.
• Achieved a record power conversion efficiency of 3.5% for inkjet-printed organic solar cells.

Conclusions:

• Inkjet printing of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells necessitates entirely new methodologies.
• Control over blend nanomorphology is crucial for efficient printed organic solar cells.
• The developed methods pave the way for efficient, printed organic solar cell technologies.