Photovoltaic characteristics of polymer solar cells fabricated by pre-metered coating process.

We present the results of a study of flat and uniform poly(3-hexylthiophene):methanofullerene bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic (PV) layers that were produced by a simple pre-metered horizontal-dipping process for the fabrication of polymer solar cells (PSCs). It is shown that this process can produce high quality and thin films by utilizing the downstream meniscus of the solution, which can be controlled by adjusting experimental parameters of the gap height and the carrying speed. It is also shown that the produced PV film exhibits high power conversion efficiency of ca. 4.2% with a large active area. It was demonstrated that this pre-metered process for solution coating may be promising for achieving highly efficient, reliable, and large-area PSCs.