Application of CVD graphene in organic photovoltaics as transparent conducting electrodes

Abstract

Graphene, a hexagonal arrangement of carbon atoms forming a one-atom thick planar sheet, has gained much attention due to its remarkable physical properties. Apart from the micromechanical cleavage of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), several alternate methods have been explored to achieve reliable and repeatable synthesis of large-area graphene sheets. Among these, the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process has been demonstrated as an efficient way of producing continuous, large area graphene films and the synthesis of graphene sheets up to 30-inch has been reported. Similar to graphene research, solar cells based on organic materials have also drawn significant attention as a possible candidate for the generation of clean electricity over conventional inorganic photovoltaics due to the interesting properties of organic semiconductors such as high absorption coefficients, light weight and flexibility, and potentially low-cost, high throughput fabrication processes. Transparent conducting electrodes (TCE) are widely used in organic photovoltaics, and metal oxides such as indium tin oxide (ITO) have been commonly used as window electrodes. Usually used as thin films, these materials require low sheet resistance (Rsh) with high transparency (T). Currently the dominant material used in the industry standard is ITO. However, these materials are not ideal options for organic photovoltaic applications due to several reasons: (1) non-uniform absorption across the visible to near infrared region; (2) chemical instability; (3) metal oxide electrodes easily fracture under large bending, and they are not suitable for flexible solar cell applications; (4) limited availability of indium on the earth leading to increasing costs with time. Therefore, the need for alternative/replacement materials for ITO is ever increasing and ideally need to be developed with the following characteristics: low-cost, mechanically robust, transparent, electrically conductive, and ultimately should demonstrate comparable or better performance compared to ITO-based photovoltaic devices. With superior flexibility and good electrical conductivity, as well as abundance of source material (carbon) at lower costs compared to ITO, in this thesis, we propose that the CVD graphene can be a suitable candidate material as TCE in organic photovoltaic applications, satisfying the aforementioned requirements.