Spray deposition of electrohydrodynamically atomized polymer mixture for active layer fabrication in organic photovoltaics

Printing and spray technologies are the most recent and novel approaches to form organic photovoltaics (OPV) with inexpensive, high speed, and environmentally friendly process. With an electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) approach, the active layer composed of polymer mixture (P3HT:PCBM) was successively fabricated. Operating conditions for obtaining the stable cone jet mode were determined with various applied voltages and liquid feed flow rates. The size distribution of EHDA droplets was characterized by aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) measurement. The mode diameters of the droplets were 580 and 670 nm, respectively, when the liquid flow rates were 1 and 20 μl/min. The maximum power conversion efficiency of 0.48% was obtained under AM 1.5 solar simulation for an OPV device fabricated in air.