Over 14% Efficiency Folding-Flexible ITO-free Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Eco-friendly Acid-Processed Electrodes

• Main Authors: Wei Song, Ruixiang Peng, Like Huang, Chang Liu, Billy Fanady, Tao Lei, Ling Hong, Jinfeng Ge, Antonio Facchetti, Ziyi Ge
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-04-01
• Series: iScience
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004220301656

Summary: Environment-friendly manufacturing and mechanical robustness are imperative for commercialization of flexible OSCs as green-energy source, especially in portable and wearable self-powered flexible electronics. Although, the commonly adopted PEDOT:PSS electrodes that are treated with severely corrosive and harmful acid lack foldability. Herein, efficient folding-flexible OSCs with highly conductive and foldable PEDOT:PSS electrodes processed with eco-friendly cost-effective acid and polyhydroxy compound are demonstrated. The acid treatment endows PEDOT:PSS electrodes with high conductivity. Meanwhile, polyhydroxy compound doping contributes to excellent bending flexibility and foldability due to the better film adhesion between PEDOT:PSS and PET substrate. Accordingly, folding-flexible OSCs with high efficiency of 14.17% were achieved. After 1,000 bending or folding cycles, the device retained over 90% or 80% of its initial efficiency, respectively. These results represent one of the best performances for ITO-free flexible OSC reported so far and demonstrate a novel approach toward commercialized efficient and foldable green-processed OSCs. : Energy Storage; Mechanical Property; Materials Mechanics Subject Areas: Energy Storage, Mechanical Property, Materials Mechanics