A Highly Efficient Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cell with a Fill Factor over 0.80 Enabled by a Fine-Tuned Hole-Transporting Layer

Zhong Zheng; Qin Hu; Shaoqing Zhang; Dongyang Zhang; Jianqiu Wang; Shenkun Xie; Rong Wang; Yunpeng Qin; Wanning Li; Ling Hong; Ningning Liang; Feng Liu; Yuan Zhang; Zhixiang Wei; Zhiyong Tang; Thomas P Russell; Jianhui Hou; Huiqiong Zhou

doi:10.1002/adma.201801801

A Highly Efficient Non-Fullerene Organic Solar Cell with a Fill Factor over 0.80 Enabled by a Fine-Tuned Hole-Transporting Layer

Adv Mater. 2018 Jul 10:e1801801. doi: 10.1002/adma.201801801. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhong Zheng¹, Qin Hu², Shaoqing Zhang³, Dongyang Zhang⁴, Jianqiu Wang⁴, Shenkun Xie⁴, Rong Wang⁴, Yunpeng Qin³, Wanning Li³, Ling Hong³, Ningning Liang³, Feng Liu², Yuan Zhang⁴, Zhixiang Wei¹, Zhiyong Tang¹, Thomas P Russell², Jianhui Hou³, Huiqiong Zhou¹

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China.
² Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
³ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁴ School of Chemistry, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China.

PMID: 29989212
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201801801

Abstract

With rapid development for tens of years, organic solar cells (OSCs) have attracted much attention for their potential in practical applications. As an important photovoltaic parameter, the fill factor (FF) of OSCs stands for the effectiveness of charge generation and collection, which significantly depends on the properties of the interlayer and active layer. Here, a facile and effective strategy to improve the FF through hole-transporting layer (HTL) modification is demonstrated. By mixing WO_x nanoparticles with a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) emulsion, the surface free energy of the HTL is improved and the morphology of the active layer is optimized. Benefiting from increased carrier lifetime, a device based on WO_x :PEDOT:PSS HTL exhibits a boosted performance with an FF of 80.79% and power conversion efficiency of 14.57% PCE. The results are certified by the National Institute of Metrology (NIM), which, to date, are the highest values in this field with certification. This work offers a simple and viable option of HTL modification to realize highly efficient OSCs.

Keywords: fill factor; interlayer; morphology; non-fullerene organic solar cell; power conversion efficiency.