Organic Photovoltaics

The Fraunhofer IAP develops customized applications for organic photovoltaics (OPV) with the focus on material and process development for solution processing on rigid and flexible substrates. The advantages of using polymer substrates for OPV applications are light weight and flexible devices with large active areas with a potential for mass production in R2R process lines at low cost and low carbon footprint. Digital printing processes like inkjet printing enable customization in the design. Process development includes ink formulation and optimization of printing processes with respect to layer homogeneity and morphology for achieving optimized device performance. Different applications have been addressed such as textile integration for charging of mobile devices as well as different architectural applications. Examples are sustainable façade elements for building integration or the integration of flexible OPV in air-filled foil cushions for generation of energy as autarkic source e.g. for lighting or heating.