Abstract
Solution processed transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) were fabricated via layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition of silver nanowires (AgNWs). First, the AgNWs were coated on (3-Mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane modified glass substrates. Then, multilayer AgNW films were obtained by using 1,3-propanedithiol as a linker via LBL deposition, which made it possible to control the optical transmittance and sheet resistance of multilayer thin films. Next, thermal annealing of AgNW films was performed in order to agent their electrical conductivity. AgNW monolayer films were characterized by UV-Vis spectrometer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy and sheet resistance measurement by four-point probe method. The high performances were achieved with multilayer films, which provided sheet resistances of 9 Ω/sq, 11 Ω/sq with optical transmittances of 71%, 70% at 550 nm, which are comparable to commercial indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. Finally, an organic photovoltaic device was fabricated on the AgNW multilayer electrodes for demonstration purpose, which exhibited power conversion efficiency of 1.1%.
Highlights
Owing to their low cost, facile production and high-throughput, organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are considered as a future alternative for conventional silicon based solar cells [1,2,3,4,5]
The recent life cycle analysis demonstrated that half of the material cost of OPVs comes from indium tin oxide (ITO), which is a drawback for the technology
The surface morphology of the transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) was analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, JEOL 63335F JSM, Peabody, MA, USA), optical microscopy (OM, ECLIPSE L150, Nikon, Tokyo, Japan) and atomic force microscopy (AFM, Bruker Dimension Icon, FKB, Germany)
Summary
Owing to their low cost, facile production and high-throughput, organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are considered as a future alternative for conventional silicon based solar cells [1,2,3,4,5]. Indium tin oxide (ITO) films have been widely used as a TCE in OPVs due to its low sheet resistance (10–20 Ω/sq) and high optical transmission (>80%). Layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition is a very promising approach that allows one to control the structure of the coatings with actual nanometer scale precision. This method produces versatile thin films with highly tunable thickness, porosity, packing density and surface properties [14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. For demonstration of the optoelectronic performances of the fabricated AgNW electrodes, they were utilized in OPV devices as an anode electrode
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