A Review on Anodic Aluminum Oxide Methods for Fabrication of Nanostructures for Organic Solar Cells

Implementation of nanostructures into the organic solar cell (OSC) architecture has a great influence on the device performance. Nanostructuring the active layer increases the interfacial area between donor and acceptor, which enhances the probability of exciton dissociation. Introduction of nanostructures into the active layer and nanopatterning of the electrodes leads to increased light absorption due to light scattering and plasmonic effects, and nanostructured antireflection coatings constrict light within the device. The appealing features of Anodic Aluminum Oxide (AAO), mainly: scalability, low fabrication cost and easy control over its nano-scale morphology, make AAO patterning methods an intriguing candidate for nanopatterning. Hence, in this work, we present a review on the fabrication techniques and on nanostructures from Anodic Aluminum Oxide (AAO) for OSC applications. The versatility of such patterning technique is shown by pointing out the possibility of using an AAO template for the fabrication of nanowires by wetting, nanodots by evaporation, nanostructures by imprinting resists, organic layers and much more.