TY - JOUR
T1 - In-Doped ZnO Electron Transport Layer for High-Efficiency Ultrathin Flexible Organic Solar Cells
AU - Liu, Xiujun
AU - Ji, Yitong
AU - Xia, Zezhou
AU - Zhang, Dongyang
AU - Cheng, Yingying
AU - Liu, Xiangda
AU - Ren, Xiaojie
AU - Liu, Xiaotong
AU - Huang, Haoran
AU - Zhu, Yanqing
AU - Yang, Xueyuan
AU - Liao, Xiaobin
AU - Ren, Long
AU - Tan, Wenliang
AU - Jiang, Zhi
AU - Lu, Jianfeng
AU - McNeill, Christopher
AU - Huang, Wenchao
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by the Hubei Provincial Key Research and Development Program (2023BAB109). W.H. conceived and designed the project. X.L. fabricated and characterized organic solar cells and wrote the paper. Y.J. and Z.X. supported the testing and characterization of organic solar cells. D.Z. fabricated the ultrathin flexible ITO substrates, and Y.C., X.L., X.L., and X.R. assisted in analyzing and discussing experimental results. Y.Z. was involved in the TPC and TPV measurements. This work was performed in part at the SAXS/WAXS beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, part of ANSTO. All authors discussed the results and provided comments on the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2024/10/9
Y1 - 2024/10/9
N2 - Sol–gel processed zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the most widely used electron transport layers (ETLs) in inverted organic solar cells (OSCs). The high annealing temperature (≈200 °C) required for sintering to ensure a high electron mobility however results in severe damage to flexible substrates. Thus, flexible organic solar cells based on sol–gel processed ZnO exhibit significantly lower efficiency than rigid devices. In this paper, an indium-doping approach is developed to improve the optoelectronic properties of ZnO layers and reduce the required annealing temperature. Inverted OSCs based on In-doped ZnO (IZO) exhibit a higher efficiency than those based on ZnO for a range of different active layer systems. For the PM6:L8-BO system, the efficiency increases from 17.0% for the pristine ZnO-based device to 17.8% for the IZO-based device. The IZO-based device with an active layer of PM6:L8-BO:BTP-eC9 exhibits an even higher efficiency of up to 18.1%. In addition, a 1.2-micrometer-thick inverted ultrathin flexible organic solar cell is fabricated based on the IZO ETL that achieves an efficiency of 17.0% with a power-per-weight ratio of 40.4 W g−1, which is one of the highest efficiency for ultrathin (less than 10 micrometers) flexible organic solar cells.
AB - Sol–gel processed zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the most widely used electron transport layers (ETLs) in inverted organic solar cells (OSCs). The high annealing temperature (≈200 °C) required for sintering to ensure a high electron mobility however results in severe damage to flexible substrates. Thus, flexible organic solar cells based on sol–gel processed ZnO exhibit significantly lower efficiency than rigid devices. In this paper, an indium-doping approach is developed to improve the optoelectronic properties of ZnO layers and reduce the required annealing temperature. Inverted OSCs based on In-doped ZnO (IZO) exhibit a higher efficiency than those based on ZnO for a range of different active layer systems. For the PM6:L8-BO system, the efficiency increases from 17.0% for the pristine ZnO-based device to 17.8% for the IZO-based device. The IZO-based device with an active layer of PM6:L8-BO:BTP-eC9 exhibits an even higher efficiency of up to 18.1%. In addition, a 1.2-micrometer-thick inverted ultrathin flexible organic solar cell is fabricated based on the IZO ETL that achieves an efficiency of 17.0% with a power-per-weight ratio of 40.4 W g−1, which is one of the highest efficiency for ultrathin (less than 10 micrometers) flexible organic solar cells.
KW - electron transport layer
KW - indium doped zinc oxide
KW - inverted organic solar cells
KW - low-temperature annealing
KW - ultrathin flexible devices
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85196856849&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/advs.202402158
DO - 10.1002/advs.202402158
M3 - Article
C2 - 38923280
AN - SCOPUS:85196856849
SN - 2198-3844
VL - 11
JO - Advanced Science
JF - Advanced Science
IS - 37
M1 - 2402158
ER -