Non-conjugated polymers as thickness-insensitive electron transport materials in high-performance inverted organic solar cells

Two non-conjugated polymers PEIE-DBO and PEIE-DCO, prepared by quaternization of polyethyleneimine ethoxylate by 1,8-dibromooctane and 1,8-dichlorooctane respectively, are developed as electron transport layer(ETL) in high-performance inverted organic solar cells(OSCs), and the effects of halide ions on polymeric photoelectric performance are fully investigated. PEIE-DBO possesses higher electron mobility(3.68×10-4 cm2 V-1s-1), higher conductivity and more efficient exciton dissociation and electron extraction, attributed to its lower work function(3.94 eV) than that of PEIE-DCO, which results in better photovoltaic performance in OSCs. The inverted OSCs with PTB7-Th: PC71BM as photoactive layer and PEIE-DBO as ETL exhibit higher PCE of 10.52%, 9.45% and 9.09% at the thickness of 9, 35 and 50 nm,respectively. To our knowledge, PEIE-DBO possesses the best thickness-insensitive performance in polymeric ETLs of inverted fullerene-based OSCs. Furthermore, PEIE-DBO was used to fabricate the inverted non-fullerene OSCs(PM6:Y6) and obtained a high PCE of 15.74%, which indicates that PEIE-DBO is effective both in fullerene-based OSCs and fullerene-free OSCs.

Surfactant-Encapsulated Polyoxometalate Complex as a Cathode Interlayer for Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells

An alcohol-soluble,environmentally friendly,and low-cost surfactant-encapsulated polyoxometalate complex[(C8H17)4N]4[SiW_(12)O40](TOASiW_(12))as a cathode interlayer(CIL)has exhibited excellent universality for various active layers and cathodes in nonfullerene polymer solar cells(NF-PSCs).In particular,incorporating TOASiW_(12) as the CIL enhanced power conversion efficiencies(PCEs)of the PM6:Y6-based NF-PSCs with Al or Ag cathode to 16.14%and 15.89%,respectively,and the PCEs of PM6:BTP-BO4Cl-based NF-PSCs with Al or Ag cathode to 17.04%and 17.00%,respectively.More importantly,the performances of the devices with TOASiW_(12) were insensitive to the TOASiW_(12) thickness from 3 to 33 nm.Furthermore,the NF-PSCs with TOASiW_(12) exhibited better device stability.Combined characterization of the photocurrent density versus effective voltage,capacitance versus voltage and electron mobility demonstrated that TOASiW_(12) as the CIL effectively promoted exciton dissociation,charge-carrier extraction,built-in potential,charge-carrier density,and electron mobility in the NF-PSCs.These findings suggest that TOASiW_(12) is a promising,competitive CIL for NF-PSCs fabricated by roll-to-roll processing.

Printable SnO2 cathode interlayer with up to 500 nm thickness-tolerance for high-performance and large-area organic solar cells

The printable electrode interlayer with excellent thickness tolerance is crucial for mass production of organic solar cells(OSCs)by solution-based print techniques. Herein, high-quality printable SnO2 films are simply fabricated by spin-coating or bladecoating the chemical precipitated SnO2 colloid precursor with post thermal annealing treatment. The SnO2 films possess outstanding optical and electrical properties, especially extreme thickness-insensitivity. The interfacial electron trap density of SnO2 cathode interlayers(CILs) are very low and show negligible increase as the thicknesses increase from 10 to 160 nm,resulting in slight change of the power conversion efficiencies(PCEs) of the PM6:Y6 based OSCs from 16.10% to 13.07%. For blade-coated SnO2 CIL, the PCE remains high up to 12.08% even the thickness of SnO2 CIL is high up to 530 nm. More strikingly, the large-area OSCs of 100 mm2 with printed SnO2 CILs obtain a high efficiency of 12.74%. To the best of our knowledge, this work presents the first example for the high-performance and large-area OSCs with the thickness-insensitive SnO2 CIL.