Low-Temperature All-Solution-Processed Transparent Silver Nanowire-Polymer/AZO Nanoparticles Composite Electrodes for Efficient ITO-Free Polymer Solar Cells

We present a kind of all-solution-processed transparent conductive film comprising of silver nanowire (AgNW), polyvinyl butyral (PVB), and Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles (AZO NPs) composite (APA) by layer-by-layer blade-coating on glass substrate at low temperature. This kind of transparent APA film exhibits high transmittance at a wide range of 400–700 nm. The sheet resistance of the APA film can be as low as 21 Ω sq –1 with transmittance over 94% at 550 nm. The introduction of PVB significantly improves the APA composite adhesion to glass substrate. The overlaid coating of AZO NPs not only reduces the sheet resistance but also improves the ambient and thermal stability of the APA film. This highly conductive and transparent APA film on glass substrate is employed as the bottom electrode to fabricate high-efficiency polymer solar cells (PSCs). A power conversion efficiency of 8.98% is achieved for the PBDTTT-EFT:PC 71 BM PSCs employing the APA composite as transparent bottom electrode, close to 9.54% of the control device fabricated on the commercial indium tin oxide substrate. As it can be easily prepared with all-solution-processed blade-coating method at low temperature, this kind of AgNW-based composite film is promising to integrate with roll-to-roll manufacturing of flexible PSCs.