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Improved Performance and Stability of Organic Solar Cells by the Incorporation of a Block Copolymer Interfacial Layer
Author(s) -
Pérez Gabriel E.,
Erothu Harikrishna,
Topham Paul D.,
Bastianini Francesco,
Alanazi Tarek I.,
Bernardo Gabriel,
Parnell Andrew J.,
King Stephen M.,
Dunbar Alan D. F.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials interfaces
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.671
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 2196-7350
DOI - 10.1002/admi.202000918
Subject(s) - materials science , copolymer , photoactive layer , layer (electronics) , degradation (telecommunications) , organic solar cell , chemical engineering , energy conversion efficiency , optoelectronics , block (permutation group theory) , active layer , nanotechnology , polymer solar cell , composite material , polymer , computer science , telecommunications , geometry , mathematics , engineering , thin film transistor
In a proof‐of‐concept study, this work demonstrates that incorporating a specifically designed block copolymer as an interfacial layer between a charge transport layer and the photoactive layer in organic solar cells can enhance the interface between these layers leading to both performance and stability improvements of the device. This is achieved by incorporating a P3HT 50 ‐ b ‐PSS x block copolymer as an interfacial layer between the hole transporting and photoactive layers, which results in the improvement of the interfacial roughness, energy level alignment, and stability between these layers. Specifically, the incorporation of a 10 nm P3HT 50 ‐ b ‐PSS 16 and a 13 nm P3HT 50 ‐ b ‐PSS 23 interfacial layer results in a 9% and a 12% increase in device efficiency respectively compared to the reference devices. In addition to having a higher initial efficiency, the devices with the block copolymer continue to have a higher normalized efficiency than the control devices after 2200 h of storage, demonstrating that the block copolymer not only improves device efficiency, but crucially, prevents degradation by stabilizing the interface between the hole transporting layer and the photoactive layer. This study proves that appropriately designed and optimized block copolymers can simultaneously stabilize and improve the efficiency of organic solar cells.