Solution-processed nanowire coating for light management in organic solar cells

Abstract

We report a novel light management approach based on solution-processed nanowire (NW) coating for enhancing organic solar cell efficiency. A titanium dioxide (TiO 2) NW dispersion was produced by electrospinning. The coatings with various coverage fractions were fabricated by a simple solution casting of a TiO 2 NW dispersion. Reduced reflectivity was observed for the NW-coated glass slide. The bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells with the NW coating showed improved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) due to their antireflection and light trapping effects in the active layer. In addition, the PCE of the cell with the NW coating was improved compared with that without the NW coating for incident angles above 70° (increased by a maximum of 51.6 at an incident angle of 85°). These results indicate that solution-processed NW coating is a promising light management approach easily scalable and applicable to a wide range of devices, including solar cells. © 2012 K. Tsuboi et al.