Manipulation of Zinc Oxide with Zirconium Doping for Efficient Inverted Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Solution‐processed zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the widely used electron transporting layers (ETLs) for organic solar cells (OSCs). However, low optical transparency along with thickness‐sensitivity of ZnO ETL constrains the improvement of photovoltaic performance and large‐scale fabrication compatibility. To resolve these issues, zirconium (Zr) doping is applied to tailor the optoelectronic and morphological properties of ZnO layer. This approach not only improves light transmittance with the suppressed parasitic absorption, but also provides an optimized surface morphology for enhancing charge extraction property and reducing potential of charge trap‐assisted recombination. By using ZnO:Zr as ETL in inverted device configuration, the maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PM6:Y6:PC71BM solar cell devices is up to 17.2%, which makes an enhancement of 9.55% compared to ZnO‐based devices (15.7%). As the thickness of ZnO:Zr ETL increases to ≈60 nm, the presence of the lower parasitic absorption together with uniform surface morphology can help photovoltaic performance maintain above 15%, which is beyond the performance of the pristine ZnO‐based device achieving only 11.9%. Such superiority of ZnO:Zr ETL is also validated by a series of well‐known BHJ systems, where in comparison with the devices based on pristine ZnO ETL, a better photovoltaic performance from ZnO:Zr device can be achieved.

Aminonaphthalimide‐Based Molecular Cathode Interlayers for As‐Cast Organic Solar Cells

“…As we all know, high degree of crystalline order, good thermal stability and weak dependence on the thicknesses of interface are of significance for cathode interfacial materials to prepare efficient industrial OSCs. [33][34][35][36] Thus, it is highly desirable to develop a high quality cathode interlayer with low processing cost and simple synthesis route, enabling the potential commercialization of OSCs. [37] Herein, we developed three low-cost and simple imidebased molecules with different amine side-chains, namely Ndimethylaminopropyl-4-bromo-1,8-naphthalimide (NA), Ndimethylaminopropyl-4-dimethylaminopropylamino-1,8-naphthalimide (NAA), and N-dimethylaminopropyl-4-aminoethylamino-1,8-naphthalimide (NEA), used as cathode interlayers in OSCs (Scheme 1 and Figure 1a).…”

Interface Engineering for High-Efficiency Solution-Processed Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 Solar Cells via a Novel Indium-Doped CdS Strategy

“…Meanwhile, it was noticeably observed that the In:CdS film displayed higher conductivity than the CdS film (Figure c,f). The enhanced conductivity of In:CdS confirmed the higher doping density, which originated from the additional In atom-generated electron because of the substitution of Cd 2+ by In 3+ . The increased doping density of In:CdS could induce stronger band bending and a built-in electric field, which boosts the carrier transport and further obtains improved device performance. ,, …”

Metal Oxide Based Photoelectrodes in Photoelectrocatalysis: Advances and Challenges

“…The efficiency of 14.7 % for a non-fullerene OSC-based Zr-doped ZnO ETL has been achieved, which is higher than that of undoped ZnO ETL counterpart. [64] Other metal oxides such as Tin oxide (SnO x ), Cerium oxide (CeO x ), Alumina (Al 2 O 3 ), and Zirconia (ZrO 2 ), etc., insulating nanolayers can also be used to reduce the work function of cathode and promote charge collection in OSCs. [65][66][67]…”