Bridging the lab-to-fab gap in non-fullerene organic solar cells via gravure printing

Taranenko S, Wang C, Holzner D, Eland R, Wöpke C, Seiler T, Weitz P, Ehm A, Le Piane F, Mackenzie RC, Zahn DR, Heumüller T, Brabec C, Deibel C, Hübler AC, Saladina M (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

EES Solar Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

DOI: 10.1039/d6el00051g

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.

Authors with CRIS profile

Paul Weitz Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) Thomas Heumüller Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET) Christoph Brabec Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET)

Involved external institutions

Technische Universität Chemnitz DE Germany (DE) Durham University GB United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Taranenko, S., Wang, C., Holzner, D., Eland, R., Wöpke, C., Seiler, T.,... Saladina, M. (2026). Bridging the lab-to-fab gap in non-fullerene organic solar cells via gravure printing. EES Solar. https://doi.org/10.1039/d6el00051g

MLA:

Taranenko, Svitlana, et al. "Bridging the lab-to-fab gap in non-fullerene organic solar cells via gravure printing." EES Solar (2026).

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