journal article·2024-02-12

Molecularly Engineered Self-Assembled Monolayers as Effective Hole-Selective Layers for Organic Solar Cells

Mingliang Li, Zhenzhu Li, Huiting Fu, Runze Yu, Wenlin Jiang, Feng Qi, Francis R. Lin, Gang Chen, Aron Walsh, Alex K.-Y. Jen

ACS Applied Energy Materials· Volume 7· Issue 3
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Abstract

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are an emerging class of hole-selective layers (HSLs) to replace the conventional poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) in organic solar cells (OSCs). Despite the wide use of SAMs, it is difficult to directly establish a feedback loop between material design and OSC performance as the SAM quality will also affect the OSC performance and was frequently neglected. In this work, we designed a series of carbazole-derived SAMs by engineering the halogen substituents and the alkyl linker lengths. A SAM stacking model was established to evaluate the SAM qualities in terms of surface morphology, molecular bonding, and packing quality. Consequently, the iodinated carbazole SAM with C2 spacer (Cz-I-2) showed the highest molecular regularity, the top OSC performance in the PM6:Y6 system, and good universal applicability with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.1% in the D18:Y6 system. It can be concluded that SAMs should benefit from OSC performance by achieving suitable energy level alignment, high packing regularity, and enhanced interactions with adjacent layers. Our work provides insight into designing SAMs for effective HSLs in efficient OSCs.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics · Conducting polymers and applications · Perovskite Materials and Applications

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China

Hong Kong Institute for Clean Energy, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China

State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China

Department of Materials, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

Department of Physics, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea

School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China

Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201204, China

Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China

Funding

Environment and Ecology Bureau · Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee · Innovation and Technology Commission · City University of Hong Kong · Research Grants Council of Hong Kong · US Office of Naval Research · Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials · Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research · Shenzhen Science and Technology Program

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