Perylene Bisimide as a Promising Zinc Oxide Surface Modifier: Enhanced Interfacial Combination for Highly Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells

We report the application of a perylene bisimide (PBI-H) as zinc oxide (ZnO) surface modifier to afford an organic-inorganic co-interlayer for highly efficient inverted organic photovoltaics (i-OPV). By thermal annealing, a N-Zn chemical bond formed between PBI-H and ZnO, inducing close organic-inorganic combination. In addition, this co-interlayer shows decreased work function and increased electron transportation and conductivity, which are benefits for the cathode to enhance charge extraction efficiency and decrease recombination losses. As a result a highly efficient i-OPV was achieved with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.43% based on this co-interlayer with PTB7:PC71BM as the active layer, which shows over 35% enhancement compared to that of the device without the PBI-H layer. Moreover, this co-interlayer was widely applicable for i-OPVs based on various material systems, such as P3HT:PC61BM and PTB7-Th:PC71BM, resulting in PCE as high as 4.78% and 10.31%, respectively.