Organic solar cells have recently experienced a substantial leap in power conversion efficiency, in part driven by formulations with new non-fullerene acceptors. This has brought the technology past the psychologically important mark of 15% efficiency for unscaled laboratory devices, and the results are stimulating another burst of research activity. Whether this will propel the technology into a viable commercial contender has yet to be determined, but to realize the potential of organic solar cells for utility scale application, fabrication using scalable processing techniques has to be demonstrated—otherwise, the passing of the 15% mark will eventually leave no more lasting impact than what the passing of the 10% mark did. Thus, addressing the scaling lag between the 15% cell efficiencies of lab-scale devices on rigid glass substrates fabricated using non-scalable techniques and the 7% efficiencies of scalably fabricated devices on flexible substrates is key. Here, we discuss the concept of scalability and give an account of the literature on non-fullerene acceptor devices fabricated with scalable methods and materials. On the basis of this, we identify three crucial focus points for overcoming the lab-to-fab challenge: (i) dual temperature control, i.e. simultaneous control of the ink and substrate temperatures during deposition, (ii) systematic in situ morphology studies of active layer inks with new, green solvent formulations during continuous deposition, and (iii) development of protocols for continuous solution processing of smooth, transparent interfacial layers with efficient charge transfer to the active layer. Combining these efforts and in general accompanying such studies with stability analyses and fabrication of large-area, scalably processed devices are believed to accelerate the relevance of organic solar cells for large-scale energy supply.
Nanocolumnar titanium coatings have been fabricated in two sputtering systems with very different characteristics (a laboratory setup and semi-industrial equipment), thus possessing different morphologies (150 nm long columns tilted 20º from the normal and 300 nm long ones tilted 40º, respectively). These coatings exhibit similar antibacterial properties against Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram negative (Escherichia coli) bacteria. When a synergic route is followed and these coatings are functionalized with tellurium (Te) nanorods, the antibacterial properties are enhanced, especially for the long nanocolumns case. The biocompatibility is preserved in all the nanostructured coatings.
The mark of 18% power conversion efficiency (PCE) was recently overcome by laboratoryscale organic solar cells (OSCs) thanks to the development of nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). NFA-based solar cells show improved performance and stability compared with those of their fullerene-acceptor-based counterparts. However, only a few studies focus on scalable deposition techniques or roll-to-roll compatible processing, which is of paramount importance for the commercialization of the technology. Here, we report a simple and fast fabrication of slot-die-coated poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl):(5Z,5'Z)-5,5'-{[7,7'-(4,4,9,9-tetraoctyl-4,9-dihydro-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5, 6-b']dithiophene-2,7-diyl)bis(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole-7,4-diyl)]bis(methanylylidene)}bis(3-ethyl-2-thi oxothiazolidin-4-one) (P3HT:O-IDTBR) OSCs using a roll platform on flexible ITO-free substrates under ambient conditions. We show that the optical band gap of the active layer increases when an isopropanoldiluted poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) hole-transport layer is coated on top of it, changing the device properties. Optimization of the coating conditions leads to the achievement of up to 3.6% PCE for single cells of 1 cm 2 fabricated under ambient conditions with flexographic printed Ag back electrodes, compared with solar cells with evaporated Ag (3.8% PCE), Au (2.1% PCE), or Cu (3.0% PCE) back contacts. OSCs with larger areas of 4 cm 2 with 2.3% PCE are also fabricated, where the fast increase of the series resistance with the area is the main PCE-limiting factor. The efficiencies herein reported for NFAs obtained by roll processing show the excellent potential of the P3HT:O-IDTBR blend for large-scale fabrication.
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