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Understanding the formation of PEDOT:PSS films

by ink-jet printing for organic solar cell applications
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Cite this: RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 78677

Arjun Singh,ab Monica Katiyarab and Ashish Garg*ab

One of the most exciting aspects of organic electronic devices, in particular organic solar cells, is their
potential for low cost and large scale manufacturing using printing technologies such as inkjet printing.
In this manuscript, we report our work on developing an understanding of the ink-jet printing process to
print smooth and transparent PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate))
films for organic solar cell devices. The parameters that were found to strongly affect the formation of a
continuous PEDOT:PSS film were substrate surface treatment, drop spacing, substrate temperature
during printing as well as annealing. We investigated the effect of these parameters through detailed
morphological characterization using optical and atomic force microscopy and the results suggested
that one can achieve a transmittance of
90% for a ca. 110 nm thick film with a uniform structure and
morphology, fabricated using a drop spacing of 30 mm and an annealing temperature of 120  C. Overall,
PEDOT:PSS film characteristics are strongly influenced by the substrate temperature during printing and
annealing temperature as well as surface modification, determined by a mix of surface wetting
Received 10th June 2015
Accepted 9th September 2015
characteristics, rate of evaporation of the solvent and coalescence of the printed lines. The organic solar
devices fabricated using these inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS films show comparable performance yielding a
DOI: 10.1039/c5ra11032g
power conversion efficiency of ca. 2.64% in comparison to ca. 3.1%, showed by the devices fabricated
www.rsc.org/advances on standard spin coated PEDOT:PSS films.

print quality of the lms strongly depends on various properties

1. Introduction of the ink as well as substrate characteristics. The parameters
One of the reasons organic electronics has caught enormous relevant to the ink are its viscosity and surface tension, while
attention from the research community as well as industry is spreading and wetting of jetted drops depend on the jetting
the manufacturability of organic devices using various low cost voltage, characteristics of the substrate surface5 and substrate
mass production techniques such as printing which could temperature. Further lm drying behavior has a critical effect
potentially result in high throughput low cost device fabrica- on nal surface uniformity. Even though the surface of initial
tion. There are various printing processes which are being liquid lm may be at, the surface of the dried lm may not be
considered for printing of organic materials and other device uniformly at. These parameters are oen system specic and
components such as ink-jet printing, dip_coating1 gravure hence there is a need to understand the effect of these param-
printing, doctor blading and screen printing.2 Among these, eters on the lm formation in the context of materials being
ink-jet printing has a few advantages over other printing printed.
methods such as non-contact printing, mask-less and combi- Printing methods are also being considered as potential
natorial processing with very little wastage, easy programma- manufacturing processes for organic solar cells (OSC),
bility and a reasonable speed of operation. particularly from the perspective of roll-to-roll and higher
Ink-jet printing consists of various steps leading to the throughput low cost processing. PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-
formation of a continuous lm: rst the formation of an ink ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)) (PEDOT:PSS)
followed by its jetting and spreading on the substrate surface is an important polymeric material because of high optical
followed by its subsequent solidication. One of the key transparence in the visible region, exibility, high work function
parameters affecting ink-jet printing is the formation of drops and easy to solution process. However poor conductivity of
from the jets of liquid.3,4 The drop formation and subsequent PEDOT:PSS limits its use in organic electronic devices. The
additives (e.g. DMSO,6 glycerol7) or surface treatment (e.g. meth-
anol8) are used for improving the device performance by
a
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology enhancing its conductivity and controlled morphology as well. A
Kanpur, Kanpur-208016, India. E-mail: ashishg@iitk.ac.in few reports also show the variation in the thickness also inu-
b
Samtel Centre for Display Technologies, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, ences the device behaviour.9–11 Besides applications in organic
Kanpur-208016, India

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solar cells, modied PEDOT:PSS can also be used for thermo- in different ratios followed by ltration of the solution using
electric devices,12–14 lithium ion batteries15 and hybrid solar 0.22 mm PVDF lter to prevent any nozzle clogging. The ink
cells.16 While printing techniques are suitable for large area viscosity was measured using the Ostwald U-shape glass
application of OPVs, there are a few challenges associated with viscometer while surface tension of the substrates and contact
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area scaling due to high sheet resistance of transparent con- angle were measured using OCA135 Data Physics goniometer
ducting electrodes e.g. indium tin oxide (ITO)17,18 as well as employing sessile drop method. Prior to the printing of
increased number for leakage paths in large area devices because PEDOT:PSS ink, ITO coated glass substrates were cleaned in the
of randomly distributed defects in thin lms19 and thickness soap solution followed by ultrasonication rst in DI water and
variations.20,21 Although attempts have been made on alternate then in the RCA solution (DI + NH3+ H2O2 mixed in a ratio of
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electrode structure such as insulator–metal–insulator structure 5 : 1 : 1) for 20 minutes followed by rinsing with DI water and
for monolithic submodules to reduce the series resistance of drying in owing N2 gas. The surface treatment of ITO coated
electrodes, the efficiencies are still low.22 glass sample was done by carrying out oxygen plasma treatment
A typical device structure that is used is a bulk heterojunc- (Plasma Preen II-973, Plasmatic Systems Inc) with 5 psi gas
tion conguration where a blend of light absorbing polymer pressure and at full power level. The ozone treatment was done
(e.g. P3HT or poly-3-hexylthiophene) and an acceptor, typically with UVO-cleaner (model no. 42-220, Jelight) for 15 minutes.
PC60BM, a fullerene, are sandwiched between the two elec- The printing of PEDOT:PSS lms of area upto 10  10 mm2
trodes. Between the electrodes and the blend layer (also called was carried out using Dimatix 2831 printer having nozzle
as active layer), oen there are thin layers which provide diameter 21 mm and using the waveform provided by Dimatix.
selectivity to the carrier transport towards cathode (e.g. Al) and The printed area of lm was 10  10 mm2 and 1.5  1.5 mm2. A
the anode (indium tin oxide or ITO). In organic solar cell devices reference PEDOT:PSS sample was prepared by spin coating
with normal architecture, a typical conguration is glass/ITO/ PEDOT:PSS ink at 2000 rpm on ITO coated glass substrates
PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PC60BM/Ca/Al. Here, a thin poly(3,4- followed by annealing at 120  C for 10 minutes. Surface
ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) topography and thickness measurement on the lms were
layer is used as a hole transport layer for selective ow of holes carried out using Zeiss optical measurement and KLA Tensor
to the anode. PEDOT:PSS lm not only works as a hole transport surface prolometer. Roughness was measured using Ambios
layer, it also affects the planarization of the underlying ITO and Asylum Research atomic force microscopy (AFM) while
electrode as well as interface quality between this layer and the transmittance spectra were measured using Perkin-Elmer
active layer.7 Hence, for fabricating a printable device, it is Lambda 750 spectrophotometer.
important to understand the printing aspects of the PEDOT:PSS For solar cell device fabrication on PEDOT:PSS (printed as well
layer and literature is surprisingly devoid of details on under- as spin coated) coated substrates, rst the blend solution of P3HT
standing the effect of process parameters on printing charac- and PC60BM was prepared in chlorobenzene with concentration
teristics of organic materials, PEDOT:PSS in the present context. 15 mg ml1 each in a N2 lled glove box. Subsequently, the
While a few previous studies report the effect of annealing solution was spin coated on PEDOT:PSS coated substrates at 2000
temperature11 and solvent addition to the ink6 on the quality of rpm yielding a lm thickness of ca. 100 nm. Subsequently, LiF
inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS lms on glass substrates, a detailed (0.8 nm) and aluminum (100 nm) were evaporated using a
understanding of the formation of PEDOT:PSS lms on ITO thermal evaporator attached with the glove box. Current–voltage
coated glass substrates is essential for better process control measurements of the device were carried out using Keithley 2400
and development. source meter at 1.5G solar spectrum and a light intensity of 100
In this report, we present a detailed study to understand the mW cm2 using a Newport solar simulator.
formation of PEDOT:PSS layer including formation of the ink
for efficient jetting and stable drop formation by varying the 3. Results and discussion
concentration of its ingredients in the original ink. The
dynamic contact angle with time was measured for studying the 3.1 Effect of viscosity on drop formation
ink spreading over ITO coated glass substrates with tempera- Prior to the printing of PEDOT:PSS lms, it was essential to
ture. We have investigated the effect of process parameters such form an ink which does not give rise to any satellite drop
as drop spacing, substrate temperature, substrate surface formation which follows the leading drop from the nozzle upon
modication and annealing temperature on the lm formation, jetting. These satellite drops are easily misdirected and can
critical to the formation of a good quality OSC devices. Finally, reduce the quality of the pattern to be printed. The dynamics of
we demonstrate working P3HT:PC60BM organic solar cell ink droplet formation depends on various physical properties
devices using printed PEDOT:PSS lms with efficiencies i.e. density, viscosity, surface tension of the ink. Most important
reasonably comparable to those obtained on spin coated of these is the viscosity which is manifested in the inverse of
PEDOT:PSS lms. dimensionless Fromm number, Z and is given as

ðargÞ1=2
2. Experimental Z¼
h
PEDOT:PSS ink was prepared by diluting commercially avail- where a is the radius of the printing orice, h is the viscosity, g
able PEDOT:PSS (Clevios P CH8000) with deionized (DI) water is the surface tension and r is the density of the ink. From the

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perspective of drop formation without a satellite, whilst a value treatment. The lms were printed at the drop spacing of 30 mm,
of Z > 2 was theoretically predicted by Fromm et al.,23 recent 33 mm and 35 mm drop spacing and at substrate temperatures of
works2 suggest that a range of 4 # Z # 14 is more appropriate. 30  C, 35  C and 40  C. Fig. 2 shows the optical micrographs of
We controlled the viscosity of the ink by changing the these lms comparing their morphologies. These micrographs
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volume ratio of PEDOT:PSS to DI water using three combina- show that neither the variation in the drop spacing nor in
tions: 1 : 2, 1 : 1 and 2 : 1 leading to a Z value of 6.72 (viscosity
substrates temperature yields a continuous lm. The lines tend
3.95 cP), 5.37 (viscosity
4.9 cP) and 4.63 (viscosity
5.65 cP) to appear sharper as the temperature of the substrate is
which are in the range predicted by Fromm et al. As Fig. 1 increased at any drop spacing which is due to increased evap-
shows, with increase in the ink viscosity, the time to form a oration rate of the solvent. However, in none of the lms, lines
showed a tendency to merge and form a continuous lm sug-
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spherical drop with satellite formation is reduced. At

PEDOT:PSS to DI water ratio of 2 : 1 (h ¼ 5.65 cP), a spherical gesting that the spreading of the ink is not uniform over the
drop is formed aer an elapsed time of 45 ms while spherical substrate surface and could possibly be related to the poor
drops are formed aer 65 ms for a ratio of 1 : 1 (h ¼ 4.95 cP). We wetting i.e. higher contact angle of the ink on the untreated
do not see formation of a spherical drop at the ratio of 1 : 2 (h ¼ substrate.
3.95 cP) within the camera resolution of the printer. Based on Based on the above results, we carried out surface treatment
these results, we selected an ink viscosity of 5.65 cP (2 : 1) for of the ITO coated glass substrates by exposing them to oxygen
printing experiments. plasma treatment for various times and investigated the effect
on the lm morphology with respect to drop spacing and the
substrate temperature. Surface treatments such as oxygen
3.2 Effect of drop spacing and the substrate temperature vis- plasma or UV-ozone treatment of ITO surface are believed to
à-vis surface treatment on the formation of PEDOT:PSS lm improve the ITO surface wettability to aqueous solutions24
First, we printed PEDOT:PSS lms on the ITO coated glass without leading to any etching effects. However, their effect with
substrates which were only cleaned with no further surface respect to printing of organic lms is not clearly reported. Fig. 3

Fig. 1 Effect of PEDOT:PSS : DI water volume ratio on the ink jetted drop formation (a) PEDOT:PSS : DI (1 : 1), (b) PEDOT:PSS : DI (2 : 1), (c)
PEDOT:PSS : DI (1 : 2) (insets show transient behavior of the drops).

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Fig. 2 Optical microscope images of PEDOT:PSS films printed on ITO coated glass substrates with no prior surface treatment at different drop
spacing: (a) 30 mm (b) 33 mm (c) 35 mm and different substrate temperature (Ts).

shows the optical micrographs of inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS 1 min treatment suggesting that oxygen plasma treatment
lms on ITO coated glass substrates which were oxygen leads to a decrease in the contact angle of the ink on the
plasma treated for 1 min and 3 min. Upon comparison with substrate and hence better wettability leading to an improved
Fig. 2, it is evident that with the oxygen plasma treatment, the coverage of the substrate. Fig. 3 shows the complete printed
coverage of the ink and hence lm uniformity improves pad whose area is small, i.e. 1.5  1.5 mm2 whose objective
dramatically. The lines only appear rather unclearly for the was to optimize the oxygen plasma time. The edges are not very
drop spacing of 35 mm while they are not at all seen for the sharp which we believe is due to splashing of drops during
drop spacing of 33 and 30 mm. Moreover, the morphology of printing. Hence for subsequent experiments, we chose the
lms with 3 min plasma treatment is much better than for oxygen plasma treatment time of 3 minutes.

Fig. 3 Optical microscope images of PEDOT:PSS films printed with different drop spacing and oxygen plasma exposure for (a) 1 min and
(b) 3 min.

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We also checked the effect of substrate temperature on the

printing of PEDOT:PSS lms for both oxygen plasma treated
substrates as well ozone treated ITO/glass substrates. In both
the cases, as shown in Fig. 4, increasing the substrate temper-
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ature leads to an increased non-uniformity of the lms as at

higher temperatures. This indicates that the printed lines do
not merge due to faster evaporation of the solvent. This exper-
iment suggested that printing at room temperature (RT ¼ 22 
2  C) yields superior quality lms with good uniformity irre-
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spective of the type of surface treatment used. The morphology

of these lms appears superior to those shown in Fig. 3 because
in these experiments, the printed area was large, 12  12 mm2,
which allows one to achieve a large enough uniform area
avoiding the edge effects.
Finally, to understand the effect of substrates temperature,
we carried out dynamic contact angle measurements with time
on the substrates treated with oxygen plasma. The results, as Fig. 5 Dynamic contact angle measurements of PEDOT:PSS ink on
shown in Fig. 5, show that at RT, the contact angle decreases oxygen plasma treated ITO coated glass substrates at different
with time and becomes stable aer
10 s whilst at higher substrates temperatures.
substrates temperatures, the contact angle reaches a stable
value at lower times,
4–5 seconds. This suggests that the
spreading of the ink is hindered by substrate temperature and spacing. These measurements also show that with increase in
increase in temperature leads to faster evaporation of the ink the substrates temperature, the contact angle increases result-
solvent. This spreading is critical to the lm formation and drop ing in poor spreading of drops as well as a reduction in the drop

Fig. 4 Optical micrograph of printed PEDOT:PSS on ITO coated glass with two different surface treatment at different substrates temperature (a)
oxygen plasma (b) UV-ozone treatment of ITO/glass substrates.

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diameter at higher substrates temperatures. This decrease in Due to an increase in the evaporation rate of the solvent from
the drop diameter restricts the coalescence of different drops at the ink with increase in the substrate temperature, the printed
higher substrate temperature and hence results in non- PEDOT:PSS drops dry quickly and hence average drop diameter
uniformity in the lm morphology at higher temperatures. of the ink also decreases and thus drop to drop interaction
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These observations justify the selection of substrate tempera- decreased, as also reported in the literature.27,28 This is quite
ture as RT for all further experiments and corroborated the important as this can lead to premature solidication of the
observations made in the previous paragraph. jetted drops by coalescence of the neighboring drops before the
The prole of the printed drop on the substrate surface is lm forms. During printing, a fast drying rate of lines reduces
very sensitive to the substrate temperature. Zhou et al. classied the line-to-line interaction.7 At very high substrate tempera-
tures, there could be occurrences of internal ow of liquid and
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different types of shapes depending on substrate temperature.25

Lower temperatures typically result in a Gaussian shape whilst hence, the solute redistributes, moving to the periphery leading
high temperatures result in a ring like shape and intermediate to the formation of ring like shape from a Gaussian shape.10
temperature lead to a transition shape.10 The droplet diameter Similar observations were also made by Subramanian et al.29
(Dm) and drop's maximum height (Hm) can be calculated using who showed that with increase in the substrate temperature,
contact angle (q) values as shown by following expression26 the printed line prole changes from convex to concave,
 1=3 affecting the overall printability.
1
Dm ¼ d0 sin q
ð3  2 sin2 q=2Þsin4 q=2
3.4 Effect of annealing temperature and morphological
and evolution
 1=3 To study the effect of annealing temperature on the morphology
1
Hm ¼ d0 sin2 ðq=2Þ of the lms, we printed PEDOT:PSS lms at different drop
ð3  2 sinðq=2ÞÞsin4 q=2
spacings from 28 mm to 33 mm and on substrate pre-treated with
where d0 is the drop diameter before impact. Based on our oxygen plasma for 3 minutes. The lms were subsequently
contact angle measurements, we have plotted the values of Dm annealed at different temperatures, 100  C and 120  C for
and Hm for various substrate temperatures as shown in Fig. 6. 20 minutes on the hot plate in air. AFM image analysis of the
Here, we observe that with increase in the substrate tempera- samples with results shown in Fig. 7, showed minimum
ture, (in both case experimental as well as calculated) the roughness at 120  C for a drop spacing of 30 mm. Subsequently,
droplet diameter decreases even though the experimental drop we investigated the combined effect of annealing temperature
diameters are different from the calculated values but the and the drop spacing for all the thicknesses. Overall, we
observed trend is similar while droplet's central height observed that a minimum roughness of PEDOT:PSS lms (ca. 4–
increases. The droplet was printed on ITO coated glass 4.5 nm) was achieved at a drop spacing of 30 and 32 mm and an
substrates and due to experimental constraints; it was not annealing temperature of 120  C yielding lms with a thickness
possible to measure droplet height using optical prolometer. of ca. 120 nm.
This is justied by the contact angle measurements, as shown A comparison of the morphology with spin coated
in Fig. 5, which show that the ink spreads for longer time at PEDOT:PSS lms of thickness ca. 50 nm, made from the same
lower temperature. Our results suggest that the droplet shape is ink used for printing, shows a porous yet uniform microstruc-
Gaussian in our case. ture of the printed lms whilst spin coated lms show a rela-
tively denser microstructure (see Fig. 8). However, in both cases,

Fig. 7 The figure shows film thickness and film roughness with drop
spacing of printed PEDOT:PSS film. Shaded area depicts the param-
Fig. 6 Relation between the substrate temperature and the final drop eters optimized for ink-jet printing of PEDOT:PSS ink on oxygen
diameter (left Y-axis) and central height of the droplet (right Y-axis). plasma treated ITO/Glass substrates.

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the morphology was uniform across the lms with little varia-
tions. It is possible that use of centrifugal force in spin coating
leads to thinner lms with a dense microstructure in the lms.
As we see subsequently, this difference in the microstructure
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does seem to adversely affect the device performance to some

extent in case of printed lms.

3.5 Integration of printed PEDOT:PSS lm into organic solar

cell device
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First, we measured the transmission characteristics of printed

PEDOT:PSS lms which are shown in Fig. 9. Xiong et al.11
showed that the addition of additive increases the trans-
mittance aer 300 nm wavelength. The additive facilitates the
formation of large PEDOT rich particles and hence, the number
of interface between PEDOT:PSS rich particles and PSS lamellas
is reduced, which contribute to the reduction in absorbance of Fig. 9 Optical transmittance measurement of inkjet printed
light.10,30 PEDOT:PSS film on ITO/glass substrate. For comparison, spectra of
The gure suggests a maximum transmission of
89% at a ITO/Glass substrate is also shown.
wavelength of 525 nm for a PEDOT:PSS lm of thickness

120 nm, which is comparable to that of ITO/glass substrates.
The electrical conductivity of printed lms was measured by lms. This is indicative of leakage related losses in the devices,
printing PEDOT:PSS ink directly on bare glass substrates to mostly attributed to interfacial losses. The results showed that
eliminate the effect of ITO because of its high conductivity. The the power conversion efficiency of the device fabricated on
measured values of conductivity were
0.02 S cm1. inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS was ca. 2.64% for 0.09 cm2 devices
To assess and compare the feasibility of these inkjet printed whilst the control device of the same area fabricated on spin-
lms on ITO coated glass substrates performance in solar cell coated PEDOT:PSS thin lms showed an efficiency of ca.
devices, we fabricated bulk heterojunction organic solar cells on 3.10%. As the data in Table 1 suggests, the major contributor
spin coated as well as inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS having normal to the lower efficiency of the device on printed PEDOT:PSS lm
device conguration ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PC60BM/Al with is its rather lower ll factor and a smaller Voc. The poor ll
device areas 0.09 and 1 cm2. The current density–voltage (J–V) factor is attributed to slightly higher sheet resistance and
characteristics were obtained both in dark and light conditions mostly to low shunt resistance of the devices. Latter is attrib-
and the results are shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b) and Table 1. The uted to higher thickness of printed PEDOT:PSS lms (ca. 120
light data on printed lms shows poor reverse saturation nm) than spin coated PEDOT:PSS lms (ca. 35 nm) which
characteristics which are vital to the shunt resistance of the results higher roughness of the inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS
device. Also, as the dark J–V data shows, the rectication ratio of printed, as evident from the microstructure shown in Fig. 8.
OSC devices on printed PEDOT:PSS lms show smaller recti- This is also the reason why dark current in the OFF state is
cation ratio (ION/IOFF) as compared to those on spin coated higher for devices on printed lms. Interestingly the Jsc values

Fig. 8 AFM images of PEDOT:PSS films fabricated using (a) inkjet printing film at drop spacing of 30 mm and (b) spin coating. Both the films were
fabricated from the same ink.

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Fig. 10 Current density vs. voltage (J–V) characteristics of OSC devices fabricated on printed as well as spin coated PEDOT:PSS films: (a) in dark
and (b) in light at 1 Sun (1.5 AM).

Table 1 Summary of organic solar cell device characteristics of devices fabricated on inkjet printed and spin coated PEDOT:PSS films

PEDOT:PSS coating process Voc (volt) Jsc (mA cm2) FF (%) PCE (%) Rs (U cm) Rsh (U cm) Pixel area (cm2)

Spin coated 0.6 9.63  0.05 52.3  0.84 3.02  0.64 17.46 467.28 0.09
Inkjet printed 0.56 10.8  0.35 41.6  2.66 2.53  0.11 21.57 221.72 0.09
Inkjet printed 0.57  0.01 3.76  0.15 29.9  3.40 0.64  0.08 84.03 226.24 1.00

of devices on ink-jet printed PEDOT:PSS lms was a slightly glass substrates using inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS hole trans-
higher than that in spin coated PEDOT:PSS lms. As our port layer. To achieve device quality lms, we have investigated
results suggested, the printed PEDOT:PSS layer has higher the effect of the various printing parameters on the printing
surface roughness as compared to spin coated layer. It is characteristics of PEDOT:PSS lms. Our results suggest that
possible that due to higher roughness of inkjet printed viscosity of the ink strongly affects the drop formation with a
PEDOT:PSS layer as well as higher porosity, the amount of viscosity of 5.65 cP leading to the formation of spherical drops
P3HT:PCBM deposited is higher than that on spin coated without any satellite formation, determined by the ratio of
PEDOT:PSS lms. This is likely to result in slightly higher PEDOT:PSS to DI water. We also found lm characteristics to
current density due to increase light absorption. Further, our be strongly affected by the substrate temperature during
experiments on large area devices with pixel size of 1  1 cm2, printing and annealing temperature as well as surface modi-
as shown in Fig. 10(b), suggest that the device performance cation, determined by a mix of surface wetting characteris-
decreases sharply with increase in the device area to
0.7%. tics, rate of evaporation of the solvent and coalescence of the
This is attributed to higher series resistance of the large area printed lines. The lms showing minimum roughness of
4
device as compared to small area device. It is31 shown that with nm were printed at room temperature at a drop spacing of 30
increase in the device area, the sheet resistance increases and mm followed by annealing at 120  C leading to a thickness of
hence the power losses increase resulting in inferior perfor- ca. 120 nm. These lms showed a maximum transmittance of
mance of large area devices.
89% at wavelength 525 nm and an electrical conductivity of
Overall, whilst one can see that ink-jet printing indeed can 2  102 S cm1. The P3HT:PC60BM organic solar cell devices
successfully fabricate PEDOT:PSS thin lms for OSC devices, fabricated on the inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS showed a power
there are challenges that remain, particularly to achieve rela- conversion efficiency of ca. 2.64% as compared to ca. 3.10%
tively thinner lms, down to
50 nm, with acceptable shown by the devices fabricated on spin coated PEDOT:PSS
morphology and desired electrical properties so that device lms using a pixel area of 0.09 cm2. Scaling up of pixel size to 1
performance is comparable to the devices fabricated on spin  1 cm2 leads to sharp reduction in the device efficiency to
coated PEDOT:PSS lms. Moreover, one needs to understand 0.7%.
the issues related to scaling up to be able to print better
devices with larger pixel size, important in realizing full
potential of printing.
Acknowledgements
Authors thank Department of Science and Technology, India
4. Conclusions for the nancial support through Indo-UK APEX Project (Grant
no. SR/RC-UK/Solar (F)/2010) and DST Nano science
In conclusion, we have successfully fabricated P3HT:PC60BM and Nanotechnology centers at IIT Kanpur for use of their
bulk heterojunction organic solar cell devices on ITO coated facilities.

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