Durable Organic Photovoltaics Enabled by a Morphology-Stabilizing Hole-Selective Self-Assembled Monolayer

Yiwen Wang; Wenlin Jiang; Shi-Chun Liu; Chieh-Ting Lin; Baobing Fan; Yanxun Li; Huanhuan Gao; Ming Liu; Francis R. Lin; Alex K.-Y. Jen

doi:10.1002/aenm.202303354

Durable Organic Photovoltaics Enabled by a Morphology-Stabilizing Hole-Selective Self-Assembled Monolayer

Yiwen Wang, Wenlin Jiang, Shi-Chun Liu, Chieh-Ting Lin, Baobing Fan, Yanxun Li, Huanhuan Gao, Ming Liu, Francis R. Lin^*, Alex K.-Y. Jen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have recently achieved efficiencies of over 19% and are well underway toward practical applications. However, issues concerning operational stability remain a major challenge ahead of OPV commercialization. Here, when replacing the conventional hole-transporting layer PEDOT:PSS with a self-assembled monolayer of [2-(3,6-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (3,6-Cl-2PACz) or [2-(4,5-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (4,5-Cl-2PACz) it is found that the T₈₀ lifetime of PM6:BTP-eC9-based devices can be improved from ^~100 to ^~470 and over 800 h, respectively. The power conversion efficiency is also improved from 17.29% to 18.17% and 18.67%, respectively. The improved performance and prolonged photostability in 4,5-Cl-2PACz-based devices stem from the stabilized vertical distribution of donor and acceptor components, reducing the energetic disorder and thus alleviating non-radiative recombination losses. It is further found that the surface energy of 4,5-Cl-2PACz-modified substrates stays constant under prolonged illumination due to the improved intrinsic photostability of 4,5-Cl-2PACz, supporting the robust active layer morphology. Applying 4,5-Cl-2PACz in a ternary device of PM6:BTP-eC9:L8-BO-F delivered an efficiency of 19.05% and a T₈₀ lifetime over 1140 h. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Original language	English
Article number	2303354
Journal	Advanced Energy Materials
Volume	14
Issue number	5
Online published	8 Dec 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202303354
Publication status	Published - 2 Feb 2024

Funding

Y.W. and W.J. contributed equally to this work. A.K.-Y.J. thanks the sponsorship of the Lee Shau-Kee Chair Professor (Materials Science) and the support from the APRC Grants (9380086, 9610419, 9610492, 9610508) of the City University of Hong Kong, the TCFS Grant (GHP/018/20SZ) and MRP Grant (MRP/040/21X) from the Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong, the Green Tech Fund (202020164) from the Environment and Ecology Bureau of Hong Kong, the GRF grants (11307621, 11316422) from the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Program (SGDX20201103095412040), Major Projects of Guangdong Education Department for Foundation Research and Applied Research (2019B030302007), and Guangzhou Huangpu Technology Bureau (2022GH02). C.-T.L. thanks the National Science and Technology Council for their support (110-2222-E-005-005-MY3, 112-2628-E-005-002-). F.R.L. acknowledges the support of the Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (CityU PDFS2122-1S06). Additionally, thanks are given for the SIMS measurement assistance from the Instrumentation Center at National Tsing Hua University. The authors also thank Prof. Jun Yan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) for the insightful discussion and Prof. Hin-Lap Yip at the City University of Hong Kong for providing a dynamic MPP tracking measurement platform.

Research Keywords

energy losses
organic solar cells
self-assembled monolayer
stability
vertical phase distribution

RGC Funding Information

RGC-funded

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access Output

10.1002/aenm.202303354

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

@article{bdbaa294af654503bf276a453df0ef75,

title = "Durable Organic Photovoltaics Enabled by a Morphology-Stabilizing Hole-Selective Self-Assembled Monolayer",

abstract = "Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have recently achieved efficiencies of over 19% and are well underway toward practical applications. However, issues concerning operational stability remain a major challenge ahead of OPV commercialization. Here, when replacing the conventional hole-transporting layer PEDOT:PSS with a self-assembled monolayer of [2-(3,6-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (3,6-Cl-2PACz) or [2-(4,5-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (4,5-Cl-2PACz) it is found that the T80 lifetime of PM6:BTP-eC9-based devices can be improved from ~100 to ~470 and over 800 h, respectively. The power conversion efficiency is also improved from 17.29% to 18.17% and 18.67%, respectively. The improved performance and prolonged photostability in 4,5-Cl-2PACz-based devices stem from the stabilized vertical distribution of donor and acceptor components, reducing the energetic disorder and thus alleviating non-radiative recombination losses. It is further found that the surface energy of 4,5-Cl-2PACz-modified substrates stays constant under prolonged illumination due to the improved intrinsic photostability of 4,5-Cl-2PACz, supporting the robust active layer morphology. Applying 4,5-Cl-2PACz in a ternary device of PM6:BTP-eC9:L8-BO-F delivered an efficiency of 19.05% and a T80 lifetime over 1140 h. {\textcopyright} 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.",

keywords = "energy losses, organic solar cells, self-assembled monolayer, stability, vertical phase distribution",

author = "Yiwen Wang and Wenlin Jiang and Shi-Chun Liu and Chieh-Ting Lin and Baobing Fan and Yanxun Li and Huanhuan Gao and Ming Liu and Lin, {Francis R.} and Jen, {Alex K.-Y.}",

year = "2024",

month = feb,

day = "2",

doi = "10.1002/aenm.202303354",

language = "English",

volume = "14",

journal = "Advanced Energy Materials",

issn = "1614-6832",

publisher = "John Wiley & Sons",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Durable Organic Photovoltaics Enabled by a Morphology-Stabilizing Hole-Selective Self-Assembled Monolayer

AU - Wang, Yiwen

AU - Jiang, Wenlin

AU - Liu, Shi-Chun

AU - Lin, Chieh-Ting

AU - Fan, Baobing

AU - Li, Yanxun

AU - Gao, Huanhuan

AU - Liu, Ming

AU - Lin, Francis R.

AU - Jen, Alex K.-Y.

PY - 2024/2/2

Y1 - 2024/2/2

N2 - Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have recently achieved efficiencies of over 19% and are well underway toward practical applications. However, issues concerning operational stability remain a major challenge ahead of OPV commercialization. Here, when replacing the conventional hole-transporting layer PEDOT:PSS with a self-assembled monolayer of [2-(3,6-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (3,6-Cl-2PACz) or [2-(4,5-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (4,5-Cl-2PACz) it is found that the T80 lifetime of PM6:BTP-eC9-based devices can be improved from ~100 to ~470 and over 800 h, respectively. The power conversion efficiency is also improved from 17.29% to 18.17% and 18.67%, respectively. The improved performance and prolonged photostability in 4,5-Cl-2PACz-based devices stem from the stabilized vertical distribution of donor and acceptor components, reducing the energetic disorder and thus alleviating non-radiative recombination losses. It is further found that the surface energy of 4,5-Cl-2PACz-modified substrates stays constant under prolonged illumination due to the improved intrinsic photostability of 4,5-Cl-2PACz, supporting the robust active layer morphology. Applying 4,5-Cl-2PACz in a ternary device of PM6:BTP-eC9:L8-BO-F delivered an efficiency of 19.05% and a T80 lifetime over 1140 h. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

AB - Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have recently achieved efficiencies of over 19% and are well underway toward practical applications. However, issues concerning operational stability remain a major challenge ahead of OPV commercialization. Here, when replacing the conventional hole-transporting layer PEDOT:PSS with a self-assembled monolayer of [2-(3,6-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (3,6-Cl-2PACz) or [2-(4,5-dichloro-9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid (4,5-Cl-2PACz) it is found that the T80 lifetime of PM6:BTP-eC9-based devices can be improved from ~100 to ~470 and over 800 h, respectively. The power conversion efficiency is also improved from 17.29% to 18.17% and 18.67%, respectively. The improved performance and prolonged photostability in 4,5-Cl-2PACz-based devices stem from the stabilized vertical distribution of donor and acceptor components, reducing the energetic disorder and thus alleviating non-radiative recombination losses. It is further found that the surface energy of 4,5-Cl-2PACz-modified substrates stays constant under prolonged illumination due to the improved intrinsic photostability of 4,5-Cl-2PACz, supporting the robust active layer morphology. Applying 4,5-Cl-2PACz in a ternary device of PM6:BTP-eC9:L8-BO-F delivered an efficiency of 19.05% and a T80 lifetime over 1140 h. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

KW - energy losses

KW - organic solar cells

KW - self-assembled monolayer

KW - stability

KW - vertical phase distribution

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85178892067&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85178892067&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1002/aenm.202303354

DO - 10.1002/aenm.202303354

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 1614-6832

VL - 14

JO - Advanced Energy Materials

JF - Advanced Energy Materials

IS - 5

M1 - 2303354

ER -

Durable Organic Photovoltaics Enabled by a Morphology-Stabilizing Hole-Selective Self-Assembled Monolayer

Abstract

Funding

Research Keywords

RGC Funding Information

UN SDGs

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

GRF: Molecular Engineering of 1D Hybrid Perovskites for Improving the Performance and Stability of Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

GRF: Rational Design and Synthesis of a New Class of Non-Fullerene Acceptors and Matched Donor Polymers for Highly Efficient Organic Photovoltaics

ITF: Development of Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cell with Safe-to-Use

Cite this