journal article·2025-11-14Open access

Organic Solar Cells with 20.12% Efficiency Enabled by Monosubstituted Carbazole-Based Self-Assembled Monolayers

Qiaonan Chen, Jingnan Wu, Maureen Gumbo, Leandro R. Franco, Kangbo Sun, Lunjie Zeng, Xianjie Liu, Yufei Wang, Donghong Yu, Lars Öhrström, Mailde S. Ozório, Alexandre Holmes, C. Moyses Araujo, Eva Olsson, Mats Fahlman, Renqiang Yang, Ergang Wang

ACS Energy Letters· Volume 10· Issue 11

Abstract

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Carbazole-derived self-assembled monolayer (SAM) materials as hole transport layers are widely used in organic photovoltaics, yet the role of subtle substituent effects on interfacial structure and device performance remains underexplored. Here, we systematically investigate monosubstituted carbazole SAMs (1X-2PACz, X = F, Cl, Br, I, CF 3 ) on indium tin oxide (ITO) and their device performance. Fluorine substitution achieves the highest surface coverage but poor interfacial order, while bulky 1CF 3 -2PACz introduces interfacial disorder. In contrast, Cl-, Br-, and I-substituted SAMs exhibit favorable packing and work-function alignment, enabling efficiencies of up to 19.03% in PM6:L8-BO and 20.12% in D18:L8-BO based solar cells. Crucially, cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscopy provides the first direct visualization of the nonideal SAM morphologies on ITO, revealing molecular aggregates in ITO valleys, mono- or multilayers on flat regions, and incomplete surface coverage. These findings establish how substituents and processing critically govern interfacial packing and photovoltaic efficiency, guiding SAM-based interfacial design.
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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 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Chalmers University of Technology

Department of Engineering and Physics

Karlstad University

College of New Materials and New Energies

Shenzhen Technology University

Department of Physics

Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE), Department of Science and Technology

Linköping University

Department of Chemistry and Bioscience

Aalborg University

Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research

School of Materials Science and Engineering

Zhengzhou University

Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark

Materials Theory Division, Department of Physics and Astronomy

Uppsala University

Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Chemical Materials and Devices (Ministry of Education) School of Optoelectronic Materials and Technology

Jianghan University

Funding

Svenska Forskningsr?det Formas · Vetenskapsr?det · Danmarks Grundforskningsfond · Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province · Sino-Danish Center · Wallenberg Foundation · Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Applied Technologies of Super-Diamond and Functional Crystals · Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability · Chalmers Area of Advance Nano

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