Abstract
We report on a way to make and transfer large-area (100 cm2) free-standing 2D or 3D colloidal photonic crystal (CPC) films deposited using a roll-to-roll Langmuir-Blodgett technique from silica or polymer particles. Using this approach, a ‘sticker’ composed of a monolayer array of silica particles with 120 nm diameter in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) glue was transferred onto a commercial flexible organic photovoltaic cell improving its conversion efficiency by some 5.2-8.3% at off-normal 0°-45° angles. The results presented here open up a range of new options for application of CPC films in the areas of photovoltaics and light-emitting devices.
Highlights
We report on a way to make and transfer large-area (100 cm2) free-standing 2D or 3D colloidal photonic crystal (CPC) films deposited using a roll-to-roll Langmuir-Blodgett technique from silica or polymer particles
The results presented here open up a range of new options for application of CPC films in the areas of photovoltaics and lightemitting devices
We anticipate that the application of colloidal photonic crystal (CPC) films in various PV, OPV, OLED and even laser technologies will become widespread once the advantages of our new process are appreciated
Summary
Colloidal photonic crystal (CPC) structures [1] including colloidal photonic crystal thin films have been recently developed in number of promising applications by employing their stimuli-responsive stop-band structures and structural color, e.g. as photonic fabrics [2], magnetic displays [3], optical sensing [4,5,6], enhanced photovoltaics [7,8] or in energy storage [9].CPC growth via self-assembly of colloidal monodisperse spheres of dielectric materials involves various fabrication methods such as controlled evaporation [10] spin coating [11], shear growth [2], the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) method [8,12,13] and others. Considering the potential applications of large area CPCs such as in enhancing the performance of thin film photovoltaics or flexible OLEDs, it is desirable to be able to control the optical properties and their mechanical properties so as to facilitate their easy application to the structure in question since of these materials on real-size devices demand a certain level of robustness In this regard CPCs [2,3,8] developed for certain applications take the physical form of a composite in which an array of self-assembled polymer or silica nanoparticles is responsible for the optical effect, e.g. stop-band formation, while the polymer cross-linker secures the required mechanical and chemical properties
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