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Plexcore PV for Printed Solar Power  Figure 1. Plextronics PV ink system kit offered by Aldrich Materials Science The soaring global demand for energy has created an urgent need for novel technologies that are both cost competitive and eco-friendly. Solar power holds the promise of delivering clean, renewable energy, but the cost of today’s silicon-based technology often limits its use mainly to large, on-grid installations. However, printed solar power—where printed inks replace silicon—enables new uses of solar energy in portable, off-grid, and, ultimately, on-grid applications, promising low-cost energy generation. In recent years, printed solar power has made significant advances in performance, and Plextronics, Inc., is leading the way through the development of its materials and process technology. Aldrich Materials Science, working with Plextronics, is now making this technology available to researchers to accelerate commercialization of printed solar power. Plexcore PV (Aldrich Prod. No. 711349) is a ready-to-use ink system that consistently delivers world-class performance for printed solar power. The system consists of two inks custom-designed to work together: a photoactive ink (based on a P3HT:PCBM p/n system – Figure 2) and a hole transport ink; Both are solution-processable.
Figure 2. Formulation of the Plexcore PV 1000 photoactive ink component provided in the 2-ink kit by Aldrich Materials Science. In printed solar cells, as seen in Figure 3, sunlight is collected in the photoactive layer to create positive and negative charge carriers. These carriers then flow to the conductive electrodes (cathode and transparent anode) in order to complete the circuit. The hole transport layer significantly improves extraction of positive charges from the photoactive layer by matching energy levels with the anode, which is critical to organic solar cell efficiency. The combination of the Plexcore PV inks in a printed solar cell is essential to consistently produce high efficiency devices, converting more sunlight into electrical energy.
Figure 3. Plexcore PV-based Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) cell structure. The performance values of the PV 1000 ink system are shown below (Figure 4) as tested and certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The solar efficiency was measured to be 3.83% with a fill factor of 64.7%.
Figure 4. I-V data of an OPV device made with the Plexcore PV 1000 ink system, certified at 3.83% by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Photons with wavelengths between the 300 nm to 650 nm range are readily absorbed and show very high quantum efficiency by the PV ink system as presented by the normalized external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectrum (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Normalized External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) spectrum from NREL. Some of the advantages and characteristics that enable the Plexcore PV ink system to propel the growth of printed solar power are listed in Table 1. Table 1. Advantages of the Plexcore OPV Ink System
Watch Engineering TV’s interview with Mary Boone of Plextronics discussing the printed solar technology and latest product release, the Plexcore PV ink system.
The Plexcore PV 1000 ink kit, containing both the photoactive ink and the hole-transport ink can be ordered from Aldrich Materials Science.
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![Figure 2b: n-type semiconducting (PCBM): [6,6]-phenylbutyric acid methyl ester derivative](/content/dam/sigma-aldrich/materials-science/organic-electronics/pv-inks/figure-2-2.jpg)
