Synthesis water-dispersible silver nanoparticles based on green chemistry for inverted organic solar cells

Abstract

For manufacturing printable large-area photovoltaic systems, the top electrode of solution-processed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is essential. To get high conductivity, AgNPs synthesized using common reducing and stabilizing agents typically require high temperature annealing process, which restricts their use in organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, we develop a green synthesis method of water-dispersible AgNPs using gallic acid (GA) as both a reducing and stabilizing agent. Small and uniform in size, the synthesized AgNPs achieved a maximum conductivity of 2.5 × 10⁶ S m⁻¹ at a low temperature of 130 °C. The inverted OSCs were then fabricated utilizing the spray-coated technique with the synthesized AgNPs. According to the results, the AgNPs top electrode works with both fullerenes and non-fullerenes OSCs. Finally, the fabricated inverted OSCs exhibit comparable photovoltaic performance to evaporated silver electrodes, and a champion efficiency of 10.03 % is achieved for inverted non-fullerene OSCs based solution-processed AgNPs top electrode.