Thermally Stable High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Interfacial Engineering

Chao Hsuan Chen, Zhi Wei Lin, Kuan Min Huang, Hsin-Fei Meng*, Szu Han Chen, Ziyi Ge, Hsiao-Wen Zan, Chih Yu Chang, Yu Chiang Chao, Sheng Fu Horng

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Interfacial engineering plays an important role in determining the performance and stability of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this study, thermally stable highly efficient PSCs are fabricated by incorporating a solution-processed cathode interfacial layer (CIL), including 4,4′-({[methyl(4-sulfonatobutyl)ammonio]bis(propane-3,1-diyl)}bis(dimethylammoniumdiyl))bis(butane-1-sulfonate) (MSAPBS) and polyethylenimine (PEI). For PSCs based on blends of poly{4,8-bis[5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl]benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-[4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-2-carboxylate-2,6-diyl]} (PBDTTT-EFT) and [6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM), the maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of inverted PSCs reaches 8.1 % and 7.2 % for MSAPBS and PEI CILs, respectively. The inverted PEI devices exhibit remarkable stability (lifetime >6000 h) under accelerated thermal aging (at 80 °C in ambient environment), which is much superior to that of the device with commonly used LiF CIL (lifetime≈33 h). This stability represents the best result reported for PSCs. The promising results based on this strategy can stimulate further work on the development of novel CILs for PSCs and pave the way towards the realization of commercially viable PSCs with high performance and long-term stability.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2429-2435
Number of pages7
JournalChemSusChem
Volume11
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Jul 2018

Keywords

  • electrodes
  • heterojunctions
  • interfaces
  • polymers
  • solar cells

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