Transparent Conductive Adhesives for Tandem Solar Cells Using Polymer-Particle Composites

Journal Article · Wed Feb 14 04:00:00 EST 2018 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.8b00175· OSTI ID:1426645

Klein, Talysa ^[1]; Lee, Benjamin G ^[1]; Schnabel, Manuel ^[1]; Warren, Emily L ^[1]; Stradins, Paul ^[1]; Tamboli, Adele C ^[1]; Van Hest, Marinus F ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Transparent conductive adhesives (TCAs) can enable conductivity between two substrates, which is useful for a wide range of electronic devices. Here, we have developed a TCA composed of a polymer-particle blend with ethylene-vinyl acetate as the transparent adhesive and metal-coated flexible poly(methyl methacrylate) microspheres as the conductive particles that can provide conductivity and adhesion regardless of the surface texture. This TCA layer was designed to be nearly transparent, conductive in only the out-of-plane direction, and of practical adhesive strength to hold the substrates together. The series resistance was measured at 0.3 and 0.8 O cm2 for 8 and 0.2% particle coverage, respectively, while remaining over 92% was transparent in both cases. For applications in photovoltaic devices, such as mechanically stacked multijunction III-V/Si cells, a TCA with 1% particle coverage will have less than 0.5% power loss due to the resistance and less than 1% shading loss to the bottom cell.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1426645
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-5K00-68945
• Journal Information: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 10; ISSN 1944-8244; ISSN XW7272
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
adhesives
flexible microspheres
lamination
polymer-particle composites
tandem solar cells
transparent conductor