Transparent, flexible and low-resistive precision fabric electrode for organic solar cells

We report the use of conducting precision fabrics as transparent and flexible electrode for organic semiconductor‐based thin film devices. Precision fabrics have well‐defined mesh openings, excellent flexibility and are fabricated by high‐throughput roll‐to‐roll manufacturing. Optimized fabrics reached light transmittance over 95% throughout the visible and near infrared spectra. A significant part of the transmitted light is scattered, which is particularly advantageous for solar cell applications. Surface resistivity is as low as ∼3 Ohms/square, which decreases Ohmic losses when scaling up to large area devices. We demonstrate that solar cells fabricated onto these electrodes show very similar characteristics to those prepared on ITO. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) Castro et al. demonstrate the use of ITO‐free precision fabrics as electrodes in organic solar cells. The fabrics are compatible with roll‐to‐roll manufacturing and present excellent flexibility and surface conductivity. Good transmittance with strong light scattering is demonstrated. The devices present similar efficiency to that of cells made on standard ITO‐coated glass. These findings indicate the potential of precision fabric electrodes for low‐cost, large‐area organic electronics.