Visibly transparent polymer solar cells produced by solution processing.

Visibly transparent photovoltaic devices can open photovoltaic applications in many areas, such as building-integrated photovoltaics or integrated photovoltaic chargers for portable electronics. We demonstrate high-performance, visibly transparent polymer solar cells fabricated via solution processing. The photoactive layer of these visibly transparent polymer solar cells harvests solar energy from the near-infrared region while being less sensitive to visible photons. The top transparent electrode employs a highly transparent silver nanowire-metal oxide composite conducting film, which is coated through mild solution processes. With this combination, we have achieved 4% power-conversion efficiency for solution-processed and visibly transparent polymer solar cells. The optimized devices have a maximum transparency of 66% at 550 nm.

[1]  Yi Cui,et al.  Solution-processed metal nanowire mesh transparent electrodes. , 2008, Nano letters.

[2]  Husnu Emrah Unalan,et al.  Conducting and transparent single-wall carbon nanotube electrodes for polymer-fullerene solar cells , 2005 .

[3]  Gang Li,et al.  Fused silver nanowires with metal oxide nanoparticles and organic polymers for highly transparent conductors. , 2011, ACS nano.

[4]  R. Stoltenberg,et al.  Evaluation of solution-processed reduced graphene oxide films as transparent conductors. , 2008, ACS nano.

[5]  Uli Lemmer,et al.  Efficient Semi‐Transparent Organic Solar Cells with Good Transparency Color Perception and Rendering Properties , 2011 .

[6]  Wei Gong,et al.  High‐Performance Metal‐Free Solar Cells Using Stamp Transfer Printed Vapor Phase Polymerized Poly(3,4‐Ethylenedioxythiophene) Top Anodes , 2012 .

[7]  Gang Li,et al.  Doping of the Metal Oxide Nanostructure and its Influence in Organic Electronics , 2009 .

[8]  Thomas M. Higgins,et al.  Silver Nanowire Networks as Flexible, Transparent, Conducting Films: Extremely High DC to Optical Conductivity Ratios. , 2009, ACS nano.

[9]  Shijun Jia,et al.  Polymer–Fullerene Bulk‐Heterojunction Solar Cells , 2009, Advanced materials.

[10]  Yang Yang,et al.  Polarizing Organic Photovoltaics , 2011, Advanced materials.

[11]  Gang Li,et al.  Vertical Phase Separation in Poly(3‐hexylthiophene): Fullerene Derivative Blends and its Advantage for Inverted Structure Solar Cells , 2009 .

[12]  Richard R. Lunt,et al.  Transparent, near-infrared organic photovoltaic solar cells for window and energy-scavenging applications , 2011 .

[13]  Gang Li,et al.  A Semi‐transparent Plastic Solar Cell Fabricated by a Lamination Process , 2008 .

[14]  Andreas Henemann,et al.  BIPV: Built-in solar energy , 2008 .

[15]  J. Hummelen,et al.  Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions , 1995, Science.

[16]  Christoph J. Brabec,et al.  Fabrication, Optical Modeling, and Color Characterization of Semitransparent Bulk‐Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells in an Inverted Structure , 2010 .

[17]  Thomas Kietzke,et al.  Optical enhancement in semitransparent polymer photovoltaic cells , 2007 .

[18]  Jung-Yong Lee,et al.  Fully solution-processed inverted polymer solar cells with laminated nanowire electrodes. , 2010, ACS nano.

[19]  Benjamin C. K. Tee,et al.  Stretchable Organic Solar Cells , 2011, Advanced materials.

[20]  Liangbing Hu,et al.  Emerging Transparent Electrodes Based on Thin Films of Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene, and Metallic Nanostructures , 2011, Advanced materials.

[21]  Y. Kim,et al.  Highly Conductive PEDOT:PSS Electrode with Optimized Solvent and Thermal Post‐Treatment for ITO‐Free Organic Solar Cells , 2011 .

[22]  Karl Leo,et al.  Near-infrared absorbing semitransparent organic solar cells , 2011 .

[23]  Andreas Bauer,et al.  ZnO:Al cathode for highly efficient, semitransparent 4% organic solar cells utilizing TiOx and aluminum interlayers , 2012 .

[24]  Yang Yang,et al.  Low-temperature solution processing of graphene-carbon nanotube hybrid materials for high-performance transparent conductors. , 2009, Nano letters.

[25]  Xiong Gong,et al.  New Architecture for High‐Efficiency Polymer Photovoltaic Cells Using Solution‐Based Titanium Oxide as an Optical Spacer , 2006 .

[26]  Yang Yang,et al.  Tandem polymer solar cells featuring a spectrally matched low-bandgap polymer , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[27]  Stephen R. Forrest,et al.  Semitransparent organic photovoltaic cells , 2006 .

[28]  Hui Joon Park,et al.  Photonic color filters integrated with organic solar cells for energy harvesting. , 2011, ACS nano.

[29]  Liangbing Hu,et al.  Organic solar cells with carbon nanotube network electrodes , 2006 .

[30]  Yang Yang,et al.  Polymer solar cells , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[31]  Yi Cui,et al.  Scalable coating and properties of transparent, flexible, silver nanowire electrodes. , 2010, ACS nano.

[32]  K. Tu,et al.  Top laminated graphene electrode in a semitransparent polymer solar cell by simultaneous thermal annealing/releasing method. , 2011, ACS nano.

[33]  Jianyong Ouyang,et al.  Solution‐Processed Metallic Conducting Polymer Films as Transparent Electrode of Optoelectronic Devices , 2012, Advanced materials.

[34]  Qibing Pei,et al.  Highly Flexible Silver Nanowire Electrodes for Shape‐Memory Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes , 2011, Advanced materials.