Solution-processed Silver Nanowires as Transparent Electrodes in Solar Cells

Abstract

As with all optoelectronic devices like displays, touch panels, or light emitting diodes (LED), solar cells require materials with high electrical conductivity and optical transparency for creating high performance transparent electrodes. Conventional materials used for this purpose have numerous drawbacks mostly regarding demanding and expensive processing methods which is why alternatives are explored. Such are silver nanowires, easily synthesized and processed very cost effective nanostructures. Our work consisted of utilizing silver nanowires as transparent electrodes in two types of solar cells - conventional silicon-based and new generation flexible organic-based. Results show that silver nanowire based transparent electrodes exhibit optoelectronic properties comparable to conventional transparent electrodes and hence, solar cells utilizing silver nanowire based transparent electrodes exhibit competitive power conversion efficiencies to ones utilizing conventional materials.