Atmospheric and Aqueous Deposition of Polycrystalline Metal Oxides Using Mist-CVD for Highly Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells

Large scale, cost-effective processing of metal oxide thin films is critical for the fabrication of many novel thin film electronics. To date, however, most of the reported solution-based techniques require either extended thermal anneals or additional synthetic steps. Here we report mist chemical vapor deposition as a solution-based, readily scalable, and open-air method to produce high-quality polycrystalline metal oxide thin films. Continuous, smooth, and conformal deposition of metal oxide thin films is achieved by tuning the solvent chemistry of Leidenfrost droplets to promote finer control over the surface-local dissociation process of the atomized zinc-bearing precursors. We demonstrate the deposited ZnO as highly efficient electron transport layers for inverted polymer solar cells to show the power of the approach. A highest efficiency of 8.7% is achieved with a fill factor of 73%, comparable to that of conventional so-gel ZnO, which serves as an indication of the efficient vertical transport and electron collection achievable using this material.