Mechanical flexibility of transparent PEDOT:PSS electrodes prepared by gravure printing for flexible organic solar cells

The mechanical flexibility of transparent poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films printed onto a flexible PET substrate using a gravure printing method was investigated using a lab-made bending test system. Gravure-printed PEDOT:PSS electrodes with a sheet resistance of 359 Ω/square and a transparency of 88.92% showed outstanding flexibility in several types of flexibility tests, including outer/inner bending, twisting and stretching. Notably, the PEDOT:PSS electrode had a constant resistance change (ΔR/R0) within an outer and inner bending radius of 10 mm. In addition the stretched PEDOT:PSS electrode showed a fairly constant resistance change (ΔR/R0) up to 4%, which is more stable than the resistance change of conventional amorphous ITO electrode. The twisting test revealed that the resistance of the PEDOT:PSS electrode began to increase at an angle of 36° due to delamination of the film from the PET substrate. Despite the high sheet resistance of the PEDOT:PSS electrode the flexible organic solar cells fabricated on the PEDOT:PSS electrode showed a power conversion efficiency of ∼2% (FF: 44.9%, Vo: 0.495 V and Jsc: 9.1 mA/cm2), indicating the possibility of using gravure printed PEDOT:PSS as a flexible and transparent electrode for printing-based flexible organic solar cells.

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► Mechanical flexibility of gravure printed PEDOT:PSS investigated.
► Printed PEDOT:PSS electrodes showed outstanding flexibility in flexibility tests.
► Flexible OSCs with PEDOT:PSS electrode showed a PCE of ∼2%.