Highly efficient inverted rapid-drying blade-coated organic solar cells

Abstract

Efficient inverted bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) organic solar cells fabricated by rapid-drying blade-coated were demonstrated. Optimized self-organization interpenetration networks and donor/acceptor domain sizes were obtained while maintaining the smooth surface morphology. By integrating with low-temperature-processed sol–gel ZnO electron extraction layer, power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 4.4% under AM1.5G 1 sun illumination is achieved, compared to fast drying but low efficiency (1.2%) and high efficiency but with long-time solvent annealing treatment (4.3%) control cells deposited by spin coating in chlorobenzene (CB) and 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) solution, respectively. The novel deposition technique reveals a promising process for highly efficient, high throughput, stable morphology organic solar cells fabrication.