In Situ Absorption Characterization Guided Slot-Die-Coated High-Performance Large-Area Flexible Organic Solar Cells and Modules

Slot-die coating is recognized as the most compatible method for the roll-to-roll (R2R) processing of large-area flexible organic solar cells (OSCs). However, the photovoltaic performance of large-area flexible OSC lags significantly behind that of traditional spin-coating devices. In this work, two acceptors, Qx-1 and Qx-2, show quite different film-formation kinetics in the slot-die coating process. In situ absorption spectroscopy indicates that the excessive crystallinity of Qx-2 provides early phase separation and early aggregation, resulting in oversized crystal domains. Consequently, the PM6:Qx-1-based 1 cm(2) flexible device exhibits an excellent power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.70%, which is the best performance among the slot-die-coated flexible devices; in contrast, the PM6:Qx-2 blend shows a pretty poor efficiency, which is lower than 1%. Moreover, the 30 cm(2) modules based on PM6:Qx-1, containing six 5 cm(2) sub-cells, exhibit a PCE of 12.20%. After being stored in a glove box for over 6000 h, the PCE remains at 103% of its initial values, indicating excellent shelf stability. Therefore, these results show a promising future strategy for the upscaling fabrication of flexible large-area OSCs.

Automated summary

Slot-die coating is the most compatible method for roll-to-roll processing of large-area flexible organic solar cells (OSCs), but its performance lags behind spin-coating. This study investigates the film-formation kinetics of two acceptors, Qx-1 and Qx-2, in slot-die coating. The excessive crystallinity of Qx-2 leads to oversized crystal domains, while Qx-1 shows excellent performance with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.70%.