Thue Trofod Larsen-Olsen

Roll-to-roll fabrication of polymer solar cells

As the performance in terms of power conversion efficiency and operational stability for polymer and organic solar cells is rapidly approaching the key 10-10 targets (10 % efficiency and 10 years of stability) the quest for efficient, scalable, and rational processing methods has begun. The 10-10 targets are being approached through consistent laboratory research efforts, which coupled with early commercial efforts have resulted in a fast moving research field and the dawning of a new industry. We review the roll-to-roll processing techniques required to bring the magnificent 10-10 targets into reality, using quick methods with low environmental impact and low cost. We also highlight some new targets related to processing speed, materials, and environmental impact.

Scalable, ambient atmosphere roll-to-roll manufacture of encapsulated large area, flexible organic tandem solar cell modules

Inline printing and coating methods have been demonstrated to enable a high technical yield of fully roll-to-roll processed polymer tandem solar cell modules. We demonstrate generality by employing different material sets and also describe how the ink systems must be carefully co-developed in order to reach the ambitious objective of a fully printed and coated 14-layer flexible tandem solar cell stack. The roll-to-roll methodologies involved are flexographic printing, rotary screen printing, slot-die coating, X-ray scattering, electrical testing and UV-lamination. Their combination enables the manufacture of completely functional devices in exceptionally high yields. Critical to the ink and process development is a carefully chosen technology transfer to industry method where first a roll coater is employed enabling contactless stack build up, followed by a small roll-to-roll coater fitted to an X-ray machine enabling in situ studies of wet ink deposition and drying mechanisms, ultimately elucidating how a robust inline processed recombination layer is key to a high technical yield. Finally, the transfer to full roll-to-roll processing is demonstrated.

All printed transparent electrodes through an electrical switching mechanism: A convincing alternative to indium-tin-oxide, silver and vacuum

Here we show polymer solar cells manufactured using only printing and coating of abundant materials directly on flexible plastic substrates or barrier foil using only roll-to-roll methods. Central to the development is a particular roll-to-roll compatible post-processing step that converts the pristine and non-functional multilayer-coated stack into a functional solar cell through formation of a charge selective interface, in situ, following a short electrical pulse with a high current density. After the fast post-processing step the device stack becomes active and all devices are functional with a technical yield and consistency that is compelling.

Interfacial engineering of self-assembled monolayer modified semi-roll-to-roll planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells on flexible substrates

The morphologies of the perovskite (e.g. CH3NH3PbI3) layer are demonstrated to be critically important for highly efficient perovskite solar cells. This work applies 3-aminopropanoic acid as a self-assembled monolayer (C3-SAM) on a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) hole transport layer (HTL) to modify the crystallinity and coverage of the CH3NH3PbI3−xClx film, resulting in a much smoother perovskite surface morphology together with a PCE increase from 9.7% to 11.6%. Since all fabrication steps of these inverted structure devices are carried out under low temperature conditions (processing temperature < 120 °C), it is possible to employ this method on flexible polymer substrates using roll-coating for the layer deposition. The roll-coated perovskite film on C3-SAM modified PEDOT:PSS presents a similar trend of improvement and results in enhanced PCE from 3.7% to 5.1%. The successful application of the facile HTL modification indicates a common strategy for SAM material design and selection for efficiency enhancement in perovskite photovoltaic devices.

Incorporation of ester groups into low band-gap diketopyrrolopyrrole containing polymers for solar cell applications

To increase the open circuit voltage (VOC) of polymer solar cells based on diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) containing polymers, the weakly electron-withdrawing thiophene-3,4-dicarboxylate unit was introduced into the polymer backbone. Two ester group functionalized DPP containing polymers, PCTDPP with a random structure and PDCTDPP with a regular structure, were designed and synthesized by the Stille coupling reaction. The resulting copolymers exhibit broad and strong absorption bands from 350 to 1000 nm with low optical band gaps below 1.40 eV. Through cyclic voltammetry measurements, it is found that regular PDCTDPPs HOMO energy level is 0.18 V lower than that of the corresponding random PCTDPP (−5.14 eV for PCTDPP and −5.32 eV for PDCTDPP). Preliminary photovoltaic properties of the copolymers blended with [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as an electron acceptor were investigated. The PSC based on a PCTDPP:PCBM blend shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 3.52%, with a VOC of 0.66 V, a short circuit current (ISC) of 8.53 mA cm−2, and a fill factor (FF) of 0.63. For the PDCTDPP:PCBM blend, the highest VOC reaches a value of 0.84 V, and a final PCE (0.92%) is limited by the poor hole mobility of the active layer.

Roll-coating fabrication of flexible organic solar cells: comparison of fullerene and fullerene-free systems

Flexible organic solar cells (OSCs) based on a blend of low-bandgap polymer donor PTB7-TH and non-fullerene small molecule acceptor IEIC were fabricated via a roll-coating process under ambient atmosphere. Both an indium tin oxide (ITO)-free substrate and a flexible ITO substrate were employed in these inverted OSCs. OSCs with flexible ITO and ITO-free substrates exhibited power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) up to 2.26% and 1.79%, respectively, which were comparable to those of the reference devices based on fullerene acceptors under the same conditions. This is the first example for all roll-coating fabrication procedures for flexible OSCs based on non-fullerene acceptors with the PCE exceeding 2%. The fullerene-free OSCs exhibited better dark storage stability than the fullerene-based control devices.

Synthesis and photovoltaic properties from inverted geometry cells and roll-to-roll coated large area cells from dithienopyrrole-based donor–acceptor polymers

A series of donor–acceptor low band gap polymers composed of alternating dithienopyrrole or its derivative as donors and phthalimide or thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione as acceptors (P1–P4) are synthesized by Stille coupling polymerization. All polymers show strong absorption in the visible region, for P2 and P4 possessing thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione as an acceptor, their film absorption covers the region of 500–800 nm and 500–750 nm respectively, which makes them attractive as low band gap polymer solar cell (PSC) materials. With the incorporation of thiophene bridges, P3 and P4 have 0.24 and 0.21 eV higher HOMO energy levels than P1 and P2, respectively. A bandgap as low as 1.66 eV is obtained for P2. An up-scaling experiment is performed on bulk-heterojunction PSCs with an inverted device geometry fabricated on a small scale by spin coating and on a large scale using roll-to-roll (R2R) slot-die coating and screen printing. In both cases the best performing polymer is P2 with a Voc of 0.56 V, a Jsc of −12.6 mA cm−2, a FF of 40.3%, and a PCE of 2.84% for small spin coated devices, and a Voc of 0.56 V, a Jsc of −8.18 mA cm−2, a FF of 30.7%, and a PCE of 1.40% are obtained for R2R-fabricated devices with a significantly better performance than a standard P3HT/PCBM driven device.

An isoindigo containing donor-acceptor polymer: synthesis and photovoltaic properties of all-solution-processed ITO- and vacuum-free large area roll-coated single junction and tandem solar cells

In this work, the design, synthesis, and characterization of a donor–acceptor polymer from dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole and isoindigo (i-ID) are presented. The synthesized polymer has been applied in the fabrication of large area ITO-free organic photovoltaic devices, both by spin coating and roll coating; the latter was used to construct both single junction and multi-junction organic photovoltaic (OPV) architectures.

In situ X-ray scattering of perovskite solar cell active layers roll-to-roll coated on flexible substrates

In an effort to understand recent results showing differences between the power conversion efficiencies of lead halide (CH3NH3PbI3−xClx) solar cells on glass versus flexible substrates, this study investigates the influence that substrate and processing methods have on morphological and crystallographic development. Using our in situ slot-die micro roll-to-roll coater setup, we measured small and wide angle X-ray scattering in grazing incidence while the material dried, enabling us to follow the crystallization from just after the deposition and up to 25 minutes later. The data showed differing crystallographic developments between the substrates, especially seen through the behaviour of a crystalline precursor which survived longer on the flexible substrates than on glass. Additionally, the common degradation product PbI2 was absent on the thickest flexible substrate. This leads us to conjecture that the flexible substrates absorb part of the solvent, thereby delaying evaporation and changing the solvent environment around the perovskite. As a further test, we produced solar cells with the same substrates and confirmed that the ones made on flexible substrates performed worse than those made on glass, but that when including an ITO layer in the stack it seemed to act as a buffer, whereby the solar cell performance was improved.

Fabrication of flexible polymer solar cells roll-to-roll

The aim of developing carbon-neutral and sustainable energy technologies, such as solar cells, is a …