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Low-cost transparent graphene electrodes made by ultrasonic substrate vibration-assisted spray coating (SVASC) for thin film devices

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Abstract

In an attempt to replace expensive and rigid transparent conductive oxides, used as electrodes in thin film devices, in this study, transparent graphene electrodes (TGEs) are fabricated by conventional spray coating and ultrasonic substrate vibration-assisted spray coating. Systematic characterizations of the TGEs and indium tin oxide (ITO) demonstrate comparable and even better surface and morphological characteristics, film coverage, surface potential distribution and suitable work function of the spray-on TGEs compared to those of the reference ITO electrode. A lower transmittance, electrical conductivity and charge quenching potential are observed in the TGEs compared to those of the reference ITO, which may be further improved by process optimization. As a proof of concept, the TGE was incorporated into a perovskite solar cell, where power conversion efficiency of 3.54% was achieved, which is promising given that the developed graphene electrode was fabricated using scalable and low-cost spray coating.

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Acknowledgements

Research funding from the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission in the framework of the oriental scholar and funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) is acknowledged. FZ acknowledges research fund from the Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China. Authors wish to thank Mohammad Reza Ahamdian-Yazdi for assisting with device fabrication.

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  1. University of Michigan-Shaghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute, 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Fatemeh Zabihi & Morteza Eslamian

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  1. Fatemeh Zabihi
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Correspondence to Morteza Eslamian.

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Zabihi, F., Eslamian, M. Low-cost transparent graphene electrodes made by ultrasonic substrate vibration-assisted spray coating (SVASC) for thin film devices. Graphene Technol 2, 1–11 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41127-017-0003-8

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