Lamination of Organic Solar Modules

Abstract: As the Worlds energy demand is increasing we need more of our energy to be generated from resources that affect the climate as little as possible. Solar power could be the solution if there were solar panels with a less energy demanding production than the established silicon based solar modules. Printable organic solar cells will enable a cheap production process, thus they are mainly made out of polymers in solution. However, to be able to decrease the total cost of the solar modules the commonly used indium tin oxide (ITO) for the transparent electrode needs to be replaced by a less expensive material. If the cheap, high conductive and transparent polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) could replace ITO the cost of organic solar modules would significantly decrease. For PEDOT:PSS to be able to replace ITO there are requirements that have to be met. The transparent electrode needs to be apart from transparent, highly conductive, have a low contact resistance to the other materials in the organic solar cell and be printable. In this study it has been shown that the PEDOT:PSS film with Zonyl and Diethylene Glycol (DEG) as an secondary dopant, is capable of laminating to thin films made out of PEDOT:PSS, metal or a polymer fullerene blend. The contact resistances between two PEDOT:PSS films and PEDOT:PSS film and a metal film proved to be low. When laminating to a metal film an interlayer of Silver Nano Wires (AgNW) was needed to achieve a low contact resistance.