High-Performance Transparent Copper Grid Electrodes Fabricated by Microcontact Lithography for Organic Photovoltaics

We report high-performance transparent copper grid electrodes on glass and plastic substrates that offer a higher Haacke figure-of-merit than conventional indium tin oxide electrodes and are well-matched to the requirements for organic photovoltaics (OPVs). The electrode is fabricated using microcontact lithography with a combination of molecular resist and low toxicity etchant, namely, hexadecanethiol and aqueous ammonium persulfate. This approach to electrode fabrication is much faster than conventional lithography because it takes 20 times narrower than is possible using conventional metal printing methods and so a grid pitch