Abstract
Freedom of design that was introduced as organic photovoltaic (OPV) modules were fabricated by printing. As proof-of-concept, we show OPV leaf fabrication in A5 size using gravure and rotary screen printing processes for the main active layers of the OPV structure. These printing methods allow direct printing of any kind of arbitrary, two-dimensional shapes including patterning of the electric contacts thus post-patterning stages are not needed. Fabrication of custom-shaped OPV modules requires detailed information about the technical boundaries set by the manufacturing process and materials which in turn influence the layout design and R2R upscaling. In this paper, we show custom-shaped OPV modules, patterned directly in a shape of a tree leaf with an overall size of 110 cm2 and an active area of 50 cm2 providing a power conversion efficiency of 2.0% and maximum power of 98 mW.
Highlights
Thin-film PV technologies have huge potential to spread into a wide range of off-grid end-use areas where autonomous energy harvesting is needed [1]
The custom-shaped organic photovoltaic (OPV) were fabricated using a structure of five layers in which the first three layers were patterned using screen printing and gravure printing techniques
The processing comprised the patterning of indium-tin-oxide (ITO), printing of poly (3,4- ethylene dioxythiophene):poly (PEDOT:PSS) and poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl):[6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) layers and thermal evaporation of lithium fluorine (LiF) and aluminium (Al) through a shadow mask to demonstrate the proof-ofconcept
Summary
Thin-film PV technologies have huge potential to spread into a wide range of off-grid end-use areas where autonomous energy harvesting is needed [1]. OPV modules have been fabricated using various R2R compatible printing [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] and coating techniques [10,11,12,13]; the use of coating methods limits the ability to directly pattern arbitrary, custom-shaped two-dimensional features [14, 15] which is considered to be a key factor for the successful commercialization of OPVs as recently recognized by many commercial players technical data concerning the functionality is not available. Customization of OPV is the key advantage of using printing over coating unlimited designs to any two-dimensional shape is possible, giving true design freedom for OPVs and electrical connections in the modules. Eggenhuisen et al fabricated ink-jet printed single solar cells in the shape of “Christmas tree”, and Krebs et al were the first ones to show screen printed “Solar hat”-module the electrical performance of both shapes was poor/limited [4, 17]
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