Viscous conductive glue layer in semitransparent polymer-based solar cells fabricated by a lamination process.

Semitransparent polymer-based solar cells were fabricated by using a low-cost, vacuum-free lamination process. This process is to deposit a conductive glue solution on the transparent Ag film, followed by lamination with the active layer. The glue solution and a mixture of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and d-sorbitol was used. To allow future improvements in the conversion efficiency of these cells, we investigated the relationship between major factors of the conductive glue layer and photovoltaic property. As a result, it was suggested that photovoltaic property had less of a relation to conductivity of the conductive glue layer but a strong correlation with the contact area within a certain range of the film thickness of the conductive glue layer. The optimized cells exhibited 2.22% and 2.41% of power conversion efficiencies during front and backside 100 mW cm(-2) AM1.5G illumination with reflection paper, respectively.