Issue 35, 2021

Adenine-based polymer modified zinc oxide for efficient inverted organic solar cells

Abstract

Inverted organic solar cells (OSCs) containing high work-function metal anodes (e.g., Ag or Au) and modified indium tin oxide (ITO) cathodes are more compatible with large area printing technique and exhibit superior stability. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles are widely used as cathode interlayer materials in inverted OSCs. However, low temperature processed ZnO nanoparticle films always have large amount of defect states, decreasing the device efficiency and stability. In this manuscript, a nucleobase adenine (A)-based polymer (PA) was synthesized through reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. PA works as an efficient modifier to passivate the defects, improve the conductivity, and reduce the work function (WF) of the ZnO nanoparticle films. The resultant organic–inorganic hybrid composite shows strong power on interfacial modification and energy level alignment at the device interface. The modification of ZnO nanoparticle interlayers with PA can efficiently suppress the charge recombination, and reduce the Schottky barriers of solar cell devices, affording high performance fullerene- and non-fullerene-based OSCs over a wide interlayer thickness range, from ∼18 nm to ∼100 nm. Devices containing ZnO nanoparticle interlayers modified with an optimal PA weight ratio (∼25%) yielded a maximum efficiency of 16.2%, which is among the highest efficiencies reported for inverted OSCs with the non-fullerene active layer.

Graphical abstract: Adenine-based polymer modified zinc oxide for efficient inverted organic solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 tra 2021
Accepted
09 srp 2021
First published
09 srp 2021

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021,9, 11851-11858

Adenine-based polymer modified zinc oxide for efficient inverted organic solar cells

Y. Wang, M. Liu, Z. Chen and Y. Liu, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021, 9, 11851 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC01648B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements