Predicting layer thicknesses by numerical simulation for meniscus-guided coating of organic photovoltaics

Gumpert F, Janßen A, Brabec C, Egelhaaf HJ, Lohbreier J, Distler A (2023)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2023

Journal

Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics

Book Volume: 17

Article Number: 2242455

Journal Issue: 1

DOI: 10.1080/19942060.2023.2242455

Abstract

To achieve maximum efficiency in organic photovoltaics (OPV), functional layers with uniform and exactly predefined thickness are required. An in-depth understanding of the coating process is therefore crucial for an accurate process control. In this paper, the meniscus-guided blade coating process, which is the most commonly used process for the manufacturing of organic electronics, is investigated by experimental and numerical methods. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is created to simulate the coating behaviour of P3HT:O IDTBR, an industrial state-of-the-art active material system used in OPV, and its results' independence of numerical parameters is ensured. In particular, the influence of the coating velocity and the initially injected fluid volume on the resulting wet film thickness is studied. The developed CFD analysis is able to reproduce the experimental results with very high accuracy. It is found that the film thickness follows a power law dependence on the velocity (˜v 2/3) and a linear dependence on the ink volume (˜V). Accordingly, an analytical expression based on our theoretical considerations is presented, which predicts the wet film thickness as a function of the coating velocity and the ink volume only based on easily accessible ink properties. Consequently, this CFD model can effectively substitute time-consuming and expensive experiments, which currently have to be performed manually in the laboratory for a multitude of novel material systems, and thus supports highly accelerated material research. Moreover, the results of this work can be used to achieve homogeneous large-area coatings by utilising accelerated blade coating.

Authors with CRIS profile

Christoph Brabec Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) Hans-Joachim Egelhaaf Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) Andreas Distler Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET)

Involved external institutions

Technische Hochschule Nürnberg "Georg Simon Ohm" DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Gumpert, F., Janßen, A., Brabec, C., Egelhaaf, H.-J., Lohbreier, J., & Distler, A. (2023). Predicting layer thicknesses by numerical simulation for meniscus-guided coating of organic photovoltaics. Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/19942060.2023.2242455

MLA:

Gumpert, Fabian, et al. "Predicting layer thicknesses by numerical simulation for meniscus-guided coating of organic photovoltaics." Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics 17.1 (2023).

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