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Inverted Polymer Solar Cells with Annealing‐Free Solution‐Processable NiO
Author(s) -
Tran Hong Nhan,
Dao Duc Quang,
Yoon Yung Jin,
Shin Yun Seop,
Choi Jin San,
Kim Jin Young,
Cho Shinuk
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.202101729
Subject(s) - materials science , non blocking i/o , chemical engineering , wetting , fullerene , organic solar cell , annealing (glass) , nickel oxide , polymer solar cell , solar cell , pedot:pss , polymer , solvent , acceptor , oxide , nanotechnology , composite material , organic chemistry , optoelectronics , metallurgy , chemistry , physics , engineering , condensed matter physics , catalysis
Abstract Nickel oxide (NiO) offers intrinsic p ‐type behavior and high thermal and chemical stability, making it promising as a hole transport layer (HTL) material in inverted organic solar cells. However, its use in this application has been rare because of a wettability problem caused by use of water as base solvent and high‐temperature annealing requirements. In the present work, an annealing‐free solution‐processable method for NiO deposition is developed and applied in both conventional and inverted non‐fullerene polymer solar cells. To overcome the wettability problem, the typical DI water solvent is replaced with a mixed solvent of DI water and isopropyl alcohol with a small amount of 2‐butanol additive. This allows a NiO nanoparticle suspension (s‐NiO) to be deposited on a hydrophobic active layer surface. An inverted non‐fullerene solar cell based on a blend of p ‐type polymer PTB7‐Th and non‐fullerene acceptor IEICO‐4F exhibits the high efficiency of 11.23% with an s‐NiO HTL, comparable to the efficiency of an inverted solar cell with a MoO x HTL deposited by thermal evaporation. Conventionally structured devices including this s‐NiO layer show efficiency comparable to that of a conventional device with a PEDOT:PSS HTL.