Cathode engineering with perylene-diimide interlayer enabling over 17% efficiency single-junction organic solar cells

Jia Yao; Beibei Qiu; Zhi-Guo Zhang; Lingwei Xue; Rui Wang; Chunfeng Zhang; Shanshan Chen; Qiuju Zhou; Chenkai Sun; Changduk Yang; Min Xiao; Lei Meng; Yongfang Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16509-w

Cathode engineering with perylene-diimide interlayer enabling over 17% efficiency single-junction organic solar cells

Nat Commun. 2020 Jun 1;11(1):2726. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16509-w.

Authors

Jia Yao¹, Beibei Qiu², Zhi-Guo Zhang³, Lingwei Xue¹, Rui Wang⁴, Chunfeng Zhang⁴, Shanshan Chen^{5

6}, Qiuju Zhou⁷, Chenkai Sun^{2

8

9}, Changduk Yang⁵, Min Xiao⁴, Lei Meng², Yongfang Li^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Organic/Inorganic Composites, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China.
² Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Organic/Inorganic Composites, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China. zgzhangwhu@iccas.ac.cn.
⁴ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Physics, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China.
⁵ Department of Energy Engineering, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Low Dimensional Carbon Materials Center, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 689-798, South Korea.
⁶ MOE Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, CQU-NUS Renewable Energy Materials & Devices Joint Laboratory, School of Energy & Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
⁷ Analysis & Testing Center, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, Henan, 464000, China.
⁸ School of Chemical Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
⁹ College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Henan, 450001, China.
¹⁰ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China. liyf@iccas.ac.cn.
¹¹ School of Chemical Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China. liyf@iccas.ac.cn.

Abstract

In organic solar cells (OSCs), cathode interfacial materials are generally designed with highly polar groups to increase the capability of lowering the work function of cathode. However, the strong polar group could result in a high surface energy and poor physical contact at the active layer surface, posing a challenge for interlayer engineering to address the trade-off between device stability and efficiency. Herein, we report a hydrogen-bonding interfacial material, aliphatic amine-functionalized perylene-diimide (PDINN), which simultaneously down-shifts the work function of the air stable cathodes (silver and copper), and maintains good interfacial contact with the active layer. The OSCs based on PDINN engineered silver-cathode demonstrate a high power conversion efficiency of 17.23% (certified value 16.77% by NREL) and high stability. Our results indicate that PDINN is an effective cathode interfacial material and interlayer engineering via suitable intermolecular interactions is a feasible approach to improve device performance of OSCs.

Abstract

Grants and funding