Roll-to-roll printing of polymer and perovskite solar cells: compatible materials and processes

Abstract: The exploration and harnessing of the renewable sources of energy, in addition to that of the conventional sources, has become significantly prominent with the increasing global energy demands for the continuous production of the energy for world consumption. Among these sources, for different applications, the approach of harnessing of the solar energy using the solar cells based on organic materials has already been envisaged as an alternative to that of using the solar cells based on silicon, with much of focus on the polymer based solar cells, and more recently perovskite solar cells. Such applications require the unique property of flexibility of the solar cells based on solution processable active materials. In addition, as the required area of the solar cells for these applications can be very large, the upscaling of the manufacturing rate and the size of these solar cells requires the manufacturing of these solar cells with faster techniques of roll-to-roll printing, which allow the faster and massive commercial scale for production. This review gives a detailed account of the recent progress and the development of the roll-to-roll printing technology for the polymer and perovskite solar cells, including the roll-to-roll-compatible materials and processes, over few years. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]