Development of a high performance laminated transparent top-electrode for emerging thin-film photovoltaics

光伏(PV)设备将太阳光直接转化为电能，因此随着人类向低碳未来过渡，光伏设备将在未来几十年的全球可再生能源格局中发挥重要作用。今天的PV是基于传统半导体的，传统半导体的生产相对能源密集型，并且在很大程度上限于刚性平板设计。因此，可以在柔性衬底上低温打印的PVs在建筑和交通等领域具有广泛的应用前景，这些应用要求具有灵活性、颜色可调性、重量轻和成本低等基本要求。两种新兴的光伏技术具有很强的潜力来满足这些要求，这两种技术是有机光伏和钙钛矿光伏。然而，人们普遍认为，只有在出现合适的透明、灵活的电极的情况下，这些类别的光伏才能充分发挥其相对于传统薄膜光伏的成本优势和功能优势。氧化铟锡(ITO)是目前用于光电子学的主要透明导体，包括PVs。然而，由于其易碎的陶瓷特性，它与柔性基板的兼容性很差，由于预计未来10年供应短缺的高风险，铟已被确定为欧洲经济区的一种关键原材料。因此，有必要开发一种可行的替代ITO和导电氧化物电极，特别是在未来几十年将需要大量用于PVs的实用电极，以帮助应对全球变暖带来的威胁。该提案旨在通过开发一种基于铜栅的高性能透明电极来应对这一挑战，该电极可以通过简单的叠层与光伏设备的其余部分集成在一起。这种方法避免了在使用直接在器件其余部分上制造透明电极的传统方法时在电极透明度和导电性方面不可避免的妥协。将探索两种使用低成本可持续材料和工艺来制造这种电极的非传统方法。这些输出可能会对OPV和PPV以及许多其他需要透明顶电极的光电设备的发展产生革命性影响。英国在下一代PVs的材料和工艺开发方面处于全球领先地位，因此拟议的研究成果具有强大的潜力，可以直接提高英国在这个日益重要的行业的经济竞争力，并将有助于应对因全球变暖而面临的气候变化这一紧迫的挑战。

Photovoltaic (PV) devices convert sunlight directly into electricity and so are set to play a major role in the global renewable energy landscape in the coming decades as humanity transitions to a low carbon future. Today's PVs are based on conventional semiconductors which are relatively energy-intensive to produce and largely restricted to rigid flat plate designs. Consequently, PVs that can be fabricated by printing at low temperature onto flexible substrates are attractive for a broad range of applications in buildings and transportation, where flexibility, colour-tuneability, light-weight and low cost are essential requirements. Two emerging PV technologies that have strong potential to meet these requirements are organic PVs and perovskite PVs. It is however widely recognised that these classes of PV can only fulfill their full cost-advantage and functional advantages over conventional thin film PVs if a suitable transparent, flexible electrode is forthcoming. Indium-tin oxide (ITO) is currently the dominant transparent conductor used in opto-electronics, including PVs. However, its fragile ceramic nature makes it poorly compatible with flexible substrates and indium has been identified as a 'critical raw material' for the European economic area, due to the high risk of supply shortages expected in the next 10 years. Consequently there is a need to develop a viable alternative to ITO and conducting oxide electrodes in general, particularly for utility in PVs where large quantities will be needed in the coming decades to help address the threat posed by global warming. This proposal seeks to address this challenge by developing a high performance transparent electrode based on a copper grid that can be integrated with the rest of the PV device by simple lamination. This approach avoids the inevitable compromises in electrode transparency and conductivity that arise when using the conventional approach of fabricating the transparent electrode directly on top of the rest of device. Two unconventional approaches to fabricating this electrode using low cost sustainable materials and processes will be explored. The outputs have the potential to be transformative for the advancement of OPV and PPV, as well numerous other optoelectronic devices requiring a transparent top-electrode. The UK is a global leader in the development of materials and processes for next generation PVs and so the outputs of the proposed research has strong potential to directly increase the economic competitiveness of the UK in this increasingly important sector and will help to address the now time critical challenge of climate change due to global warming.