Flash-Infrared-Annealing-Enabled High-Temperature Sintering of Photoanodes on Flexible Polymer Foils for Ultralight Photovoltaics

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Abstract
Ultralight photovoltaics are indispensable wherever every gram counts, from self-powered Internet of Things nodes to free-hanging greenhouse covers. In dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) the required 450–500 °C sintering of the mesoporous TiO2 (m-TiO2) photoanode has so far limited the use of polymer substrates. Here, we replace the furnace step with flash infrared annealing. Near-IR radiation heats the 3.5 μm m-TiO2 layer to 550 ± 20 °C while keeping a 12.5 μm indium-tin-oxide/polyimide foil below 170 °C with a water-cooled heat-sink. We obtain complete removal of organic binders, while the substrate sheet resistance increases modestly from 60.2 to 129.8 Ω sq–1. Flexible DSCs reach power conversion efficiencies of 5.10% under AM 1.5G illumination, a record value for DSCs on sub-25 μm plastics. The finished devices deliver 51× the specific power of equivalent glass devices. A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment normalized to power-per-mass reveals order-of-magnitude reductions in several categories compared with rigid hot-plate processing. Localized IR sintering thus removes the last processing barrier for truly roll-to-roll printable hybrid solar cells.
Funding Information
  • Royal Society (IES\R3\213090)
  • Royal Society (RF\ERE\210025)
  • Royal Society (URF\R1\191286)
  • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (40B2-0_203626)
  • HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (945363)
  • Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca (CUP D13C22003520001)
  • Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca (CUP D18H2200195000)
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/X00502X/1)

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