Novel acrylic monomers for organic photovoltaics encapsulation

Cheap and efficient encapsulation methods are needed for successful commercialization of organic photovoltaics (OPV). Application of epoxy or acrylic UV-curable adhesives is a fast and scalable way to encapsulate organic solar cells. Despite lower barrier properties, acrylates have some benefits over epoxies such as higher cure speed, better adhesion to various substrates, lower viscosity and increased mechanical flexibility. In this work commercial and novel acrylic monomers were applied for encapsulation of OPV. It was found that monomers with phenyl ethyl ester group can have very high adhesion to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), good barrier properties and good compatibility with a layer stack of OPV devices.