A laboratory scale approach to polymer solar cells using one coating/printing machine, flexible substrates, no ITO, no vacuum and no spincoating

Printing of the silver back electrode under ambient conditions using simple laboratory equipment has been the missing link to fully replace evaporated metal electrodes. Here we demonstrate how a recently developed roll coater is further developed into a single machine that enables processing of all layers of the polymer solar cell without moving the substrate from one machine to another.

The novel approach to polymer solar cells is readily scalable using one compact laboratory scale coating/printing machine that is directly compatible with industrial and pilot scale roll-to-roll processing. The use of the techniques was successfully demonstrated in one continuous roll process on flexible polyethyleneterphthalate (PET) substrates and polymer solar cells were prepared by solution processing of five layers using only slot-die coating and flexographic printing.

The devices obtained did not employ indium–tin-oxide (ITO) or vacuum evaporation steps making it a significant step beyond the traditional laboratory polymer solar cell processing methods involving spin coating and metal evaporation.