Vacuum-Free Fabrication Strategies for Nanostructure-Embedded Ultrathin Substrate in Flexible Polymer Solar Cells

Soo Won Heo
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Soo Won Heo: Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Center, Electronic Convergence Division, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET), 101 Soho-ro, Jinju-si, Gyeongsangnam-do 52851, Korea

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-10

Abstract: In this paper, we discuss a method for fabricating an ultrathin polymer substrate with one-dimensional nanograting patterns to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ultrathin polymer solar cells (PSCs) and suppress the dependence on the incident angle of light. Because the fabricating process of the ultrathin polymer substrate was carried out using a solution process, it can be manufactured in a large area, and the PCE of the patterned ultrathin substrate-based PSC is improved by 8.9% compared to the non-patterned device. In addition, triple-patterned ultrathin PSCs incorporating the same nanograting pattern as the substrate were fabricated in the electron transport (ZnO) layer and the photoactive layer (PBDTTT-OFT and PC 71 BM mixture (ratio-1: 1.5)) to achieve PCE of 10.26%. Thanks to the nanograting pattern introduced in the substrate, ZnO layer, and photoactive layer, it was possible to minimize the PCE change according to the incident angle of light. Moreover, we performed 1000 cycles of compression/relaxation tests to evaluate the mechanical properties of the triple-patterned ultrathin PSCs, after which the PCE remained at 71% of the initial PCE.

Keywords: ultrathin polymer solar cells; patterned substrate; nanograting patterns; non-vacuum process; polyvinyl alcohol; epoxy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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