Vacuum-free fabrication of organic solar cell on assembled glass substrates

• Published in: Optical materials 2021-02, Vol.112, p.110683, Article 110683
• Main Authors: Yang, Hao-Chun, Zha, Wusong, Weng, Chia-Ning, Chen, Chao-Hsuan, Zan, Hsiao-Wen, Su, Kuan-Wei, Luo, Qun, Ma, Chang-Qi, Chao, Yu-Chiang, Meng, Hsin-Fei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Assembled glass substrates; Blade-coating; Organic solar cells; Vacuum-free
• ISSN: 0925-3467; 1873-1252
• DOI: 10.1016/j.optmat.2020.110683

Vacuum-free fabrication is essential to realize large-scale production of organic solar cells. Blade-coating and printing are important solution-processing techniques to realize this idea. Preparation devices on large substrates is important for mass production; however, it is not easy to handle large substrates during fabrication procedures. In this work, we demonstrate a fabrication method for all-solution vacuum-free organic solar cells on an assembled glass substrates. Small pieces of glasses were assembled into a mosaic of larger total size for device fabrication. A gap-prefilling method was also developed to realize uniform thickness distribution. For the device with blade-coated ZnO electron transport layer, blade-coated active layer, spray-coated hole transport layer and spray-coated top electrode, power conversion efficiency of 4.19% is obtained. This showed that, by combining spray and blade coating, ultimate scale of the vacuum-free fabrication of OPV on glass substrate will not be limited by the substrate size itself, and can be scaled up to multi-meter by assembling the glasses into a mosaic. A method for all-solution vacuum-free organic solar cells on an assembled glass substrates were developed. Devices fabricated by blade-coating and spray-coating with power conversion efficiency of 4.19% was obtained. [Display omitted] •‧A technique for all-solution vacuum-free organic solar cells on an assembled glass substrates is presented.•‧A gap-prefilling method was also developed to realize uniform thickness distribution.•‧Power conversion efficiency of 4.19% is obtained for the device with blade-coated PEDOT:PSS, blade-coated active layer, spray-coated hole transport layer and spray-coated top electrode.