Large area, continuous, few-layered graphene as anodes in organic photovoltaic devices

Large-area, continuous, transparent, and highly conducting few-layered graphene films produced by chemical vapor deposition method were used as anode for application in photovoltaic devices. The noncovalent modification of the graphene films with pyrene buanoic acid succidymidyl ester improved the power conversion efficiency (PCE) to 1.71%. This performance corresponds to similar to 55.2% of the PCE of a control device based on indium tin oxide (ITO)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/poly(3-hexyl)thiophene: phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester/LiF/Al electrodes (PCE=3.1%). This finding paves the way for the substitution of ITO in photovoltaic and electroluminescent devices with low cost graphene films.