Flexible High-Performance and Solution-Processed Organic Photovoltaics with Robust Mechanical Stability

Among the various advantages of organic photovoltaics (OPVs), the key one is their ability to be a highly flexible renewable energy source. However, the power conversion efficiencies for flexible OPV devices still lag behind those of their rigid counterparts, and their mechanical stability cannot meet the requirements for practical applications at present. These, in particular, depend on flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs). Here, a high-quality FTE (called FlexAgNE), with the simultaneously combined excellent characteristics, has been tested with a series of efficient active materials for flexible OPV devices, and high performance comparable with rigid counterparts has been achieved. In addition, due to the synergistic effect of FlexAgNE and the upper ZnO transport layer, including strong binding between the polyethylene terephthalate substrate and a hydrophilic polyelectrolyte (the key component of FlexAgNE), together with the capillary force effect of crossed silver nanowires and tight filling of ZnO, the flexible devices demonstrate robust mechanical stability even under extreme bending or folding conditions.

Automated summary

The key advantage of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is their flexibility as a highly renewable energy source. However, flexible OPV devices still lag behind rigid counterparts in power conversion efficiencies, and their mechanical stability cannot meet practical application requirements at present. By utilizing a high-quality flexible transparent electrode (FlexAgNE) combined with efficient active materials and an upper ZnO transport layer, comparable high performance with rigid counterparts has been achieved. The synergistic effect of FlexAgNE and the upper ZnO transport layer leads to robust mechanical stability of flexible devices even under extreme bending or folding conditions.