Inkjet printed solar cell active layers based on a novel, amorphous polymer

Organic solar cells are a favorable alternative to their inorganic counterparts because the functional layers of these devices can be processed with printing or coating on a large scale. In this study, a novel polymer was synthesized, blended with fullerene and deposited with inkjet printing for solar cell applications. Devices with printed layers were compared to those with spin coated films in order to evaluate inkjet printing as a thin film deposition method. Efficiency values of 3.7% were found for devices with inkjet printed or spin coated layers. Inkjet printing can be used to successfully process the active layers of organic solar cells consisting of novel polymers without sacrificing device performance.