High Performance Transparent Silver Grid Electrodes for Organic Photovoltaics Fabricated by Selective Metal Condensation

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) Vol. 35; no. 21; pp. e2300166 - n/a
• Main Authors: Bellchambers, Philip, Henderson, Charlie, Abrahamczyk, Szymon, Choi, Seungsoo, Lee, Jin‐Kyun, Hatton, Ross A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2023
• Subjects: Electrodes; Glass substrates; grid electrodes; Indium tin oxides; Materials science; organic photovoltaics; organic solar cell; Photovoltaic cells; Radius of curvature; silver; transparent electrodes; grid electrodes; organic solar cell; silver; transparent electrodes; organic photovoltaics
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202300166

Silver grid electrodes on glass and flexible plastic substrates with performance that exceeds that of commercial indium‐tin oxide (ITO) coated glass are reported and show their suitability as a drop‐in replacement for ITO glass in solution‐processed organic photovoltaics (OPVs). When supported on flexible plastic substrates these electrodes are stable toward repeated bending through a small radius of curvature over tens of thousands of cycles. The grid electrodes are fabricated by the unconventional approach of condensation coefficient modulation using a perfluorinated polymer shown to be far superior to the other compounds used for this purpose to date. The very narrow line width and small grid pitch that can be achieved also open the door to the possibility of using grid electrodes in OPVs without a conducting poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene‐poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) layer to span the gaps between grid lines. High‐performance silver grid electrodes on glass and plastic substrates fabricate by condensation coefficient modulation, using a perfluorinated polymer shown to be far superior to other compounds used for this purpose to date. The very narrow line width and small pitch open the door to using these electrodes in OPVs without a PEDOT: PSS layer to span the gaps between grid lines.