Fabrication of Indium Tin Oxide-Free Photoetched Polyethylene Terephthalate Substrate for Nanocomposites Based Photovoltaic Applications

Organic semiconductors optical devices are considered one of the top promising cheaper technologies in the solar cells industry. The current efficiency of organic solar cells ranges from 3–15% due to the narrow window of the spectrum that could be absorbed beside the low mobility of the charge carriers. This work presents the development of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)-free flexible polymer substrate for the utilization of high and wide range optical absorption nanocomposite based-photovoltaic cell of high efficiency and high stability. Electron beam evaporation technique was used to deposit Al–Ti layer on the polymer substrate. An inorganic nanostructure in the organic or polymer semiconductor for increasing the hole mobility and improving absorption range of photons as well as increasing the cell stability could be inserted. The optimized condition for the photoetching of polymer, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate was successfully obtained by using XRD, FESEM and AFM studies. The XRD results reveal the increase in the grain size of the etched PET film. The XRD results are also good in agreement with the results shown by FESEM and AFM studies. XRD results confirmed the formation of Al–Ti layer on the PET substrate, and FESEM micrographs shoed the uniform deposition of Al–Ti on the substrate. Photoetching played a key role in improving the conductivity of the substrate. Nanostructures could be deposited on flexible polymer/Al–Ti substrate supported by PVA electrodes and followed by organic polymer deposition with heterojunction. The integration of the new design of materials on unconventional substrates such as fabric and plastic could be explored.