Spray Coating for Polymer Solar Cells: An Up‐to‐Date Overview

Abstract

Solution processing is the most appealing aspect of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices. The possibility of printing low‐cost, lightweight, and efficient polymer solar cells (PSC) is the commonly accepted paradigm associated with printable materials deposited as inks using solution‐processing techniques. In addition to slot–die, serigraphy, and flexo/gravure printing, spray coating can be used for photo‐active polymer blends, interface materials for hole and electron extraction, and electrodes. This technique is widely accepted in the industrial world as one of the most suitable for coating thin layers onto virtually any kind of substrate (e.g., glass, metal, plastic) with a degree of conformability insuperable by any other high‐speed coating technique. We present the basic principles governing the mechanisms of atomization, the main techniques adopted for PSCs, the state of the art applications of spray coating for building up each layer of a PSC, and an overview of the perspectives for industrialization.

Sustainable Electronics Based on Crop Plant Extracts and Graphene: A “Bioadvantaged” Approach

“…[75,76] Plant leaves function as flexible, biodegradable, and lightweight solar energy harvesters and converters. [79][80][81] Among the possible solvent-assisted production methods, spray-coating possesses many advantages such as large area adaptation and the ability to coat both linear and curved substrates [82,83] in short times. Furthermore, the materials employed for PSCs are often solution-processable and of low cost.…”

“…Polymer solar cells (PSCs), compared to conventional silicon modules, [77,78] have been developed to mimic natural leaf to exhibit some structural characteristics such as conformability, light weight per unit area, and all-organic constituents. [81] However, drawbacks still exist such as the non-eco-friendly nature of some of the materials employed. [79][80][81] Among the possible solvent-assisted production methods, spray-coating possesses many advantages such as large area adaptation and the ability to coat both linear and curved substrates [82,83] in short times.…”

Fabricating high performance conventional and inverted polymer solar cells by spray coating in air

“…[16] More recent work has however explored spray-cast blends of amorphous donor-acceptor co-polymers with fullerene-derivative electron acceptors, with improved device performance demonstrated. [11,13,17,18] Spray-coating has also been used to deposit the various charge transporting layers used in OPV devices. [19] In single junction OPV device based on a conventional architecture, the active layer is deposited onto a hole-transporting layer.…”

Inverted Organic Photovoltaic Cell with ZnO Nanorod Structure

“…[9][10][11][12] Moreover, one of the most important advantages of an OPV is that the organic/inorganic photoactive and carrier transport layers and metal/inorganic electrodes solution can be processed, which drastically lowers the fabrication cost because it is not necessary to use a vacuum system, and a roll-to-roll printing process is possible. In fact, several types of solution processes for fabricating OPVs have already been demonstrated, including spray coating, 13 gravure printing, 14 flexographic printing, 15 screen printing, 16 and electrospray deposition.…”