Publication date: 15th December 2025
Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have reached efficiencies exceeding 21%, but these peak performances typically rely on synthetically complex and expensive polymer donors such as PM6 or D18, rigid substrates, small active areas (<<1 cm2), and processing by spin coating. While promising, this approach presents significant barriers to commercial viability, particularly considering that the photoactive layer might constitute the majority of the projected costs of OPV module production. Our research addresses these limitations by developing processing techniques for flexible OPV modules using scalable processing with green solvents and a low-cost photoactive layer in an inverted architecture. We investigate PTQ-10 as the polymer donor, which is synthetically simpler than conventional high-efficiency donors for potentially lower cost high-volume production. Through control of the vertical phase distribution, achieved by utilizing additives, and implementing a tailored layer-by-layer slot-die coating protocol, we increased the efficiency of inverted OPV devices. Additionally, by optimizing the photoactive layer viscosity for slot-die coating, we improved film consistency and quality, achieving active-area efficiencies exceeding 13% for flexible OPV modules larger than 10 cm2. We compare performance and stability to commercially available materials, which currently exceed PTQ10 in performance and stability. We discuss the challenges associated with PTQ10-based inks and the work required to turn it into a competitive commercially viable system. Our work nonetheless demonstrates the highest combination of performance and active area for slot-die coated flexible modules, representing a significant step toward commercially viable OPV technology.
Work supported by ONR STTR phase-II award N6833523C0036
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.