Large-area organic photovoltaic module-Fabrication and performance

Here we describe the fabrication of the largest (233 cm(2) total area) organic photovoltaic (OPV) module (polymer: fullerene) to be certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). OPV solar cells were fabricated at Plextronics by spin coating a blend of poly 3-hexylthiophene-2,5 diyl (P3HT) and [6,6] phenyl C-61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) on top of our hole transport layer (HTL), Plexcore (R) OC. In laboratory-scale devices (0.09 cm(2)), this system routinely exhibits power conversion efficiencies exceeding 3.7%. This P3HT:PCBM active layer and HTL ink system was used to scale up to the larger area module (15.2 cm x 15.2 cm module size, i.e. 233 cm(2) total area; 108 cm(2) active area), which was certified by NREL as having 1.1% total area efficiency (3.4% active area efficiency). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.