Anti-Fatigue Tandem Organic Photovoltaics for Indoor Illumination

Adv Mater. 2024 Apr;36(16):e2311476. doi: 10.1002/adma.202311476. Epub 2024 Jan 15.

Abstract

The ability of achieving high efficiency makes tandem organic photovoltaics (PVs) a competitive technique in potential indoor applications. Except high efficiency, reliable indoor energy supply also calls for outstanding stability. However, unavoidable unstable voltage supply from the circuit control system for indoor light sources like light emitting diodes (LED) and incandescent lamps would cause carrier density fluctuation and device fatigue driven by periodic light/dark switching. In this work, the strobing-induced fatigue within the bulk heterojunction (BHJ)/interconnecting layer (ICL) interface is first revealed and overcome. Based on reliable and effective interfacial doping between conjugated acceptor and metal oxide, the interfacial capacitance that determines the strobing-induced fatigue, has been significantly restrained. The imbalance carrier migration and fierce inter-layer accommodating during the burn-in stage caused by light strobing are substantially diminished. Benefit from this method, the stability of tandem devices is highly enhanced under strobing indoor illumination, and a champion efficiency (35.02%) is obtained. The method provides guidance for further material design for interconnecting layers in organic photovoltaics.

Keywords: fatigue; indoor power supply; power conversion efficiency; stability; tandem organic photovoltaics.