pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: Rheology & Advanced Characterization
Poster Presentation
 
 

Polymers for printed photovoltaic thin films – crucial aspects during the embedding of inorganic particles into an organic matrix

Pötz Sandra (1)*, Esfandiari Parichehr (2), Waldauf Christoph (2), Neisser Axel (2), Oreski Gernot (1)

(1) Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH - Styria - Austria, (2) Crystalsol GmbH - Vienna - Austria

Printed photovoltaic thin film (PPTF) is a new technology where the light absorbing material of the thin film consists of a crystalline semiconducting powder. Examples for such semiconducting materials are Cu(In1-xGax)Se2 (CIGS) or Cu2ZnSnSxSe4 (CZTS). Due to the abundant and inexpensive components, especially CZTS is of great interest for the application in thin-film solar cells, where the mono-crystals are usually fixed on a thin and flexible polymer layer. For significantly reducing the costs of this technology, a highly automated printing-process-like production is of advantage for continuous module production. Here, the goal is to achieve the fabrication of these printed photovoltaic thin films in a fast roll-to-roll printing process with a speed of 40 m min-1. A critical issue during this printing process is the arrangement of the CZTS particles as a single layer attached to the thin polymer film. Nevertheless, this polymer should fulfill particular demands for effective particle commitment, like reasonable low viscosity and surface tension. Also, a stepwise curing procedure is required. After a first (partial) curing step, the viscosity of the polymer film should be increased to assume values to be low enough for displacement and particle embedding without excessive coverage of the grains surfaces. This work focuses on the characterization of the properties of the particular state for particle attachment in terms of monomer conversion and thermodynamic characteristics.