Bridging the lab-to-fab gap in non-fullerene organic solar cells via gravure printing
6 affiliations
- 1aInstitute for Print and Media Technology, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany.
- 2bInstitute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany.
- 3cInstitute of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET), Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
- 4bInstitute of Physics, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany.dCenter for Materials, Architectures and Integration of Nanomembranes (MAIN), Chemnitz University of Technology, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany.
- 5eDepartment of Engineering, Durham University, Lower Mount Joy, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
- 6cInstitute of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET), Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.fHelmholtz-Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg (HI ERN), 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract
Organic solar cells have reached record efficiencies with non-fullerene acceptors, yet their translation to industrial printing remains a critical bottleneck. Here we report the highest efficiency achieved for a fully roll-to-roll-compatible gravure-printed non-fullerene organic solar cell. High-performance blends are typically optimised under laboratory coating conditions, while roll-to-roll manufacturing imposes fundamentally different constraints on ink stability, drying dynamics, and multilayer integration. Whether these constraints intrinsically limit device physics has remained unresolved. Here, we demonstrate a gravure-printed PM6:Y12 solar cell architecture using commercially available materials and establish a quantitative framework that disentangles optical, recombination, and transport losses in printed devices. We find that gravure printing and non-halogenated solvents largely preserve active-layer absorption and efficient exciton harvesting. The dominant efficiency penalties arise instead from optical interference within the printed layer stack and slow charge transport. Our results show that the performance gap between laboratory and printed solar cells is governed primarily by device architecture, printed interfaces, and charge-transport limitations, providing a mechanistic roadmap for roll-to-roll manufacturing of non-fullerene solar cells.
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BibTeX
@article{taranenko2026bridging,
title = {{Bridging the lab-to-fab gap in non-fullerene organic solar cells via gravure printing}},
author = {Svitlana Taranenko and Chen Wang and David Holzner and Robert Eland and Christopher Wöpke and Toni Seiler and Paul Weitz and Alexander Ehm and Fabio Le Piane and Roderick C. I. Mackenzie and Dietrich R. T. Zahn and Thomas Heumüller and Christoph J. Brabec and Carsten Deibel and Arved Carl Hübler and Maria Saladina},
journal = {EES Solar},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1039/d6el00051g},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6el00051g},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Bridging the lab-to-fab gap in non-fullerene organic solar cells via gravure printing
AU - Svitlana Taranenko
AU - Chen Wang
AU - David Holzner
AU - Robert Eland
AU - Christopher Wöpke
AU - Toni Seiler
AU - Paul Weitz
AU - Alexander Ehm
AU - Fabio Le Piane
AU - Roderick C. I. Mackenzie
AU - Dietrich R. T. Zahn
AU - Thomas Heumüller
AU - Christoph J. Brabec
AU - Carsten Deibel
AU - Arved Carl Hübler
AU - Maria Saladina
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/01
JO - EES Solar
DO - 10.1039/d6el00051g
UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6el00051g
AB - Organic solar cells have reached record efficiencies with non-fullerene acceptors, yet their translation to industrial printing remains a critical bottleneck. Here we report the highest efficiency achieved for a fully roll-to-roll-compatible gravure-printed non-fullerene organic solar cell. High-performance blends are typically optimised under laboratory coating conditions, while roll-to-roll manufacturing imposes fundamentally different constraints on ink stability, drying dynamics, and multilayer integration. Whether these constraints intrinsically limit device physics has remained unresolved. Here, we demonstrate a gravure-printed PM6:Y12 solar cell architecture using commercially available materials and establish a quantitative framework that disentangles optical, recombination, and transport losses in printed devices. We find that gravure printing and non-halogenated solvents largely preserve active-layer absorption and efficient exciton harvesting. The dominant efficiency penalties arise instead from optical interference within the printed layer stack and slow charge transport. Our results show that the performance gap between laboratory and printed solar cells is governed primarily by device architecture, printed interfaces, and charge-transport limitations, providing a mechanistic roadmap for roll-to-roll manufacturing of non-fullerene solar cells.
SN - 3033-4063
ER -