Low-work-function
metal oxides as cathode interlayers are widely
used in polymer organic solar cells (PSCs), but the surface defect
and intrinsic photocatalysis issues severely affect the high efficiency,
thickness insensitivity, and stability of PSCs. In this work, we used
organosilica nanodots (OSiNDs) to modify ZnO as cathode interlayers
via the self-assembly method. The ZnO/OSiNDs bilayer can acquire a
suitable work function and a high conductivity of 5.87 × 10–4 S m–1. Through systematic studies,
there is stable surface coordination interaction of Zn–N bonding
between ZnO and OSiNDs. In i-PSCs, using D18:Y6 as the active layer,
the ZnO/OSiNDs-based device achieves the best PCE of 17.87%. More
importantly, due to the high conductivity, the PCE for the device
based on a 68 nm thick ZnO/OSiNDs interlayer is still high up to 16.53%,
while the PCE for the device based on a 66 nm thick ZnO interlayer
is only 13.18%. For photostability, the PCE of the device based on
the ZnO/OSiNDs interlayer maintains 95% of its original value after
continuous AM 1.5G illumination (contains UV light) at 100 mW/cm2 for 600 min, while that of the ZnO-based device only maintains
72% of the original value. This work suggests that ZnO/OSiNDs can
be utilized as a cathode interlayer to fabricate highly efficient
and stable PSC over a wide range of thicknesses.
The interface layer greatly affects the performance of
organic
solar cells (OSCs). In this paper, we selected an amino-containing
silane molecule (AEEA) and four fluorescein molecules with different
functional groups to prepare a series of cathode interface materials
based on organosilica nanodots (OSiNDs) by one-step hydrothermal synthesis,
in order to research the impact of functional groups on the performance
of OSC devices. The good film crystallinity and carrier mobility without
high-temperature annealing endowed the OSCs with high V
oc and J
sc, and the best efficiency
of 15.91% was reached with the OSi-ErB cathode interlayer. Moreover,
compared with ZnO devices, OSiND-based devices showed highly improved
light stability after UV irradiation.
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