It is now recognized that for solution processed organic photovoltaics (OPVs) to be manufactured on a large scale the thickness of the photoactive layer must be substantially increased beyond the currently used ≤150 nm. We show that copper can replace silver as the reflective substrate electrode in high performance top-illuminated OPVs without compromising device power conversion efficiency when the photoactive layer is thick enough to absorb the majority of incident photons on the first pass through the photoactive layer. Copper is one hundredth of the cost of Ag, enabling a significant reduction in the bill of materials for OPV manufacture.
Keywords: copper; copper electrode; organic photovoltaic; thick bulk-heterojunction; top-illuminated.