Fabrication of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells by a spray deposition method for low-cost power generation

TLDR

The authors propose a spray deposition method as a cost‑efficient technique for fabricating organic solar cells. They fabricate active layers by spray‑depositing the photoactive blend onto substrates using conventional handheld airbrushes. The spray‑deposited OSCs produced pinhole‑free, uniformly thick films with a 2.83 % power‑conversion efficiency and 52 % incident‑photon‑to‑current efficiency, performing comparably to spin‑coated devices fabricated in air.

Abstract

The authors report on a spray deposition method as a cost-efficient technique for the fabrication of organic solar cells (OSCs). Active layers of OSCs were fabricated using conventional handheld airbrushes. Although the spray deposited film showed a relatively rougher surface than spin coated ones, pinhole-free and constant thickness films could be obtained. An optimized OSC showed 2.83% of power conversion efficiency and 52% of incident photon to current conversion efficiency even though the device was fabricated in air. The performance of sprayed OSCs was comparable to that of the spin coated devices fabricated in air.