Effect of hydrochloric acid solvent vapor annealing on spray coated silver electrode

Hydrochloric acid solvent vapor annealing (SVA) was incorporated to modify the spray coated silver electrode, and the effect of hydrochloric acid on the performance of silver electrode was systematically studied. The morphology changes of silver electrode were characterized by metallographic microscope and scanning tunneling microscope. The results showed that hydrochloric acid SVA could improve the conductivity of spray coated silver electrode and eliminate the boundary diffraction effect during spray coating process, resulting in a significant decrease of electrode boundary width from 4.91 to 1.14 μm. Furthermore, the component of silver electrode was analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. It showed that hydrochloric acid could eliminate the boundary of silver electrode through etching the conductive polymer, which was the main component of electrode boundary. Based on the silver electrode of hydrochloric acid SVA, the application for electronic devices as electrode had also been realized for the fabrication of polymer solar cells.