Transfer printing of electrodes for organic devices: nanoscale versus macroscale continuity

While transfer printing is a powerful technique to prepare micro- and nanostructured thin films, the preparation of continuous large-area electrodes via transfer printing is challenging. In this paper, we find discontinuity on the nanoscale as requirement for the successful transfer printing of large-area (marcoscale) continuous electrodes. We demonstrate that silver films deposited by physical vapor deposition or electroless deposition (ELD) can be used to form top electrodes for organic devices. However, the transfer of ELD films appears more promising. It enables vacuum-free room-temperature processing of metal top electrodes. As a case study, the top electrode of an organic solar cell was fabricated this way. The resulting power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.20 % is about 85 % of the PCE of the reference device with a vacuum-deposited silver electrode.