Solution Processed Semi‐Transparent Organic Solar Cells Over 50% Visible Transmittance Enabled by Silver Nanowire Electrode with Sandwich Structure

Abstract

Photovoltaic windows with easy installation for the power supply of household appliances have long been a desire of energy researchers. However, due to the lack of top electrodes that offer both high transparency and low sheet resistance, the development of high transparency photovoltaic windows for indoor lighting scenarios has lagged significantly behind photovoltaic windows where privacy issues are involved. Addressing this issue, in this work we develop a solution processable transparent top electrode using sandwich structure silver nanowires, realizing high transparency in semi‐transparent organic solar cells. The wettability and conducting properties of the electrode are improved by a modified hole‐transport layer named HP. The semi‐transparent solar cell exhibits good see‐through properties at a high average visible transmittance of 50.8%, with power conversion efficiency of 7.34%, and light utilization efficiency of 3.73%, which is the highest without optical modulations. Moreover, flexible devices based on the above‐mentioned architecture also show excellent mechanical tolerance compared with Ag electrode counterparts, which retains 94.5% of their original efficiency after 1500 bending cycles. This work provides a valuable approach for fabricating solution processed high transparency organic solar cells, which is essential in future applications in building integrated photovoltaics.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Pressurized Back-Junction Doping via Spray-Coating Silver Nanowires Top Electrodes for Efficient Charge Collection in Bifacial Colloidal PbS Quantum Dot Solar Cells

“…1−4 Highly flexible thin film solar cells have been demonstrated by forming AgNW electrodes on various plastic substrates, 5−7 which potentially allows roll-to-roll fabrications of solar modules along with their enhanced applicability in urban area where rigid Si solar panels cannot be installed. 8 In addition to the superior flexibility and conductivity, the low temperature solution-processability of AgNWs allows facile fabrications of solar cells with optical transparency on both sides (substrate side and film side), which is demanding for high-efficiency tandem solar cells, 9−11 semitransparent solar cells, 12,13 or bifacial solar cells. 14,15 Despite the strong potential, embedding AgNWs into thin film solar cells and making them properly function as TCE are not trivial because of the following issues.…”

“…Silver nanowire (AgNW) electrode offers a promising alternative to conventional oxide-based transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) due to the inherent flexibility, high optical transparency, and excellent conductivity. − Highly flexible thin film solar cells have been demonstrated by forming AgNW electrodes on various plastic substrates, − which potentially allows roll-to-roll fabrications of solar modules along with their enhanced applicability in urban area where rigid Si solar panels cannot be installed . In addition to the superior flexibility and conductivity, the low temperature solution-processability of AgNWs allows facile fabrications of solar cells with optical transparency on both sides (substrate side and film side), which is demanding for high-efficiency tandem solar cells, − semitransparent solar cells, , or bifacial solar cells. , …”

Flexible transparent Ag NW micromesh electrode with enhanced electrical and thermal properties for multifunctional smart panel applications

“…Among them, Ag NW-based FTEs are considered a highly promising candidate for next-generation photoelectric devices considering their inherent excellent electro-optical properties and superior mechanical flexibility. 12,13…”

Haze factor of silver nanowires in variable refractive index environment: experimental and simulation approaches

“…Many metal oxide materials were deposited on Ag NWs by ALD such as zinc oxide (ZnO) [54,[58][59][60][61], aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) [62][63][64][65], aluminium oxide (ALO) [54,66], titanium oxide (TiO 2 ) [7,67] or zirconium oxide (ZrO 2 ) [68]. The improvement of the air and the thermal stability of Ag NWs after metal oxides coating has allowed several applications as transparent electrodes [58,64], transparent capacitors [62], transparent heaters [7], as well as their integration into solar cells [4,5], OLED [59,60,65,69] or textile [70,71]. However, the influence of the metal oxide coating on the HF of Ag NWs was not studied, while the light scattering intensity and the surface plasmon frequency of a metal are known to be very sensitive to the refractive index of the environment [72,73].…”