Visibly transparent polymer solar cells produced by solution processing

ACS Nano. 2012 Aug 28;6(8):7185-90. doi: 10.1021/nn3029327. Epub 2012 Jul 12.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Electric Power Supplies*
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Nanostructures / radiation effects
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Refractometry
  • Solar Energy*
  • Solutions / chemistry
  • Solutions / radiation effects

Substances

  • Polymers
  • Solutions