Vanadyl Sulfate Based Hole-Transporting Layer Enables Efficient Organic Solar Cells

It remains an urgent task to develop alternative hole-transporting layer(HTL)materials beyond commonly used PEDOT:PSS to increase the shelf-life of organic solar cells(OSCs).Inorganic metal oxide type materials,such as NiO_(x),CoO_(x)and VO_(x),with suitable work functions have attracted numerous research attention recently.In this work,more abundant and easily accessible oxygenated salt,vanadyl sulfate(VOSO_(4))has been demonstrated to be excellent choice as HTL for OSCs.The VOSO_(4)-based HTL can be readily processed by spin-coating from the precursor solution with subsequent thermal annealing and UVO treatment.As a consequence,a high power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 18.72%can be achieved for PM8:L8-BO based OSCs with the VOSO_(4)-based HTL.High transmittance,smooth film surface,suitable energy level and high conductivity were revealed to contribute to the high OSC performance.More importantly,compared to device with PEDOT:PSS,VOSO_(4)-based OSCs exhibit improved stability when stored in the N_(2)filled glove box.After being stored for 600 h,VOSO_(4)-based device can retain 89%of its initial efficiency.Notably,VOSO_(4)can be used as general HTL in PM6:BTP-BO-4Cl and PM6:IT-4F based OSCs,yielding high PCEs of 17.87%and 13.85%,respectively.

Determination of vanadyl sulfate ion-pair dissociation constant at 298.15 K by Fuoss method

Vanadium battery has fast and large capacity charge and discharge characteristics, and the concentration and stability of the battery electrolyte are the key to the electrolyte performance. In actual, with higher acidity and higher concentration of the vanadium battery electrolyte, the ion-pair is dominant. The ion-pair dissociation constant is one of the important thermodynamic data related to battery performance. The vanadyl sulfate conductivity in aqueous solution was determined using the conductance method at 298.15K. Using the origin data fitting, the limiting molar conductance is obtained, and then by the improved Ostwald dilution law and the Davies equation, the activity coefficient is solved so as to obtain the ionic strength of the true solution. Using the Fuoss method, the dissociation constant of vanadyl sulfate ion-pair was calculated. At last, the vanadyl sulfate limiting molar conductance (Λ 0 ) is 174.8251748 S·dm2·mol?1, and the vanadyl sulfate ion-pair dissociation constant K d is 0.002636367, and then other thermodynamic properties can be studied.