Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells
Selection of interfacial layer is critical for nonfullerene active layers to obtain high performance due to high chemical reactivity with base or amines. So far, alcohol‐processed ethoxylated polyethylenimine (PEIE) interfacial layer has not been successfully used in high‐performance nonfullerene so...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley-VCH
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Advanced Energy & Sustainability Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/aesr.202000094 |
| _version_ | 1831717011464388608 |
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| author | Wenwu Zeng Xianmin Zhou Baocai Du Lu Hu Cong Xie Wen Wang Youyu Jiang Tao Wang Yinhua Zhou |
| author_facet | Wenwu Zeng Xianmin Zhou Baocai Du Lu Hu Cong Xie Wen Wang Youyu Jiang Tao Wang Yinhua Zhou |
| author_sort | Wenwu Zeng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Selection of interfacial layer is critical for nonfullerene active layers to obtain high performance due to high chemical reactivity with base or amines. So far, alcohol‐processed ethoxylated polyethylenimine (PEIE) interfacial layer has not been successfully used in high‐performance nonfullerene solar cells. Herein, findings are reported as follows: 1) alcohol‐processed PEIE as an interfacial layer can deliver high‐performance (15.3%) Y6‐based nonfullerene solar cells if its thickness is reduced to about 1.2 nm rather than 5–10 nm that is generally used in fullerene solar cells. That is comparable with the reference cells with ZnO interlayer. Slightly thicker PEIE (5 nm) would significantly reduce the power conversion efficiency down to 7.5%. This is completely different from the fullerene‐based solar cells. 2) The ultrathin thickness strategy is not universal for other nonfullerene acceptors. Even though the PEIE thickness is about 1.2 nm, the IT‐4F‐based nonfullerene solar cells exhibit lower performance than reference cells with ZnO interlayer. That is because the IT‐4F is more chemically reactive than Y6 with the PEIE. The observation suggests the proper selection and optimization of the interfacial layer is critical to the solar cells with different nonfullerene electron acceptors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T00:50:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fbf69f6f21b4461685ef584d5b06c831 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2699-9412 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T00:50:33Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | Wiley-VCH |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advanced Energy & Sustainability Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-fbf69f6f21b4461685ef584d5b06c8312022-12-21T19:21:25ZengWiley-VCHAdvanced Energy & Sustainability Research2699-94122021-05-0125n/an/a10.1002/aesr.202000094Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar CellsWenwu Zeng0Xianmin Zhou1Baocai Du2Lu Hu3Cong XieWen Wang4Youyu Jiang5Tao Wang6Yinhua Zhou7Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074 ChinaWuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074 ChinaSchool of Materials Science and Engineering Wuhan University of Technology Wuhan 430070 ChinaWuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074 ChinaWuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074 ChinaWuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074 ChinaSchool of Materials Science and Engineering Wuhan University of Technology Wuhan 430070 ChinaWuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074 ChinaSelection of interfacial layer is critical for nonfullerene active layers to obtain high performance due to high chemical reactivity with base or amines. So far, alcohol‐processed ethoxylated polyethylenimine (PEIE) interfacial layer has not been successfully used in high‐performance nonfullerene solar cells. Herein, findings are reported as follows: 1) alcohol‐processed PEIE as an interfacial layer can deliver high‐performance (15.3%) Y6‐based nonfullerene solar cells if its thickness is reduced to about 1.2 nm rather than 5–10 nm that is generally used in fullerene solar cells. That is comparable with the reference cells with ZnO interlayer. Slightly thicker PEIE (5 nm) would significantly reduce the power conversion efficiency down to 7.5%. This is completely different from the fullerene‐based solar cells. 2) The ultrathin thickness strategy is not universal for other nonfullerene acceptors. Even though the PEIE thickness is about 1.2 nm, the IT‐4F‐based nonfullerene solar cells exhibit lower performance than reference cells with ZnO interlayer. That is because the IT‐4F is more chemically reactive than Y6 with the PEIE. The observation suggests the proper selection and optimization of the interfacial layer is critical to the solar cells with different nonfullerene electron acceptors.https://doi.org/10.1002/aesr.202000094alcohol-processed ethoxylated polyethyleniminechemical reactivitiesinterfacial layersnonfullerene solar cellssurface modification |
| spellingShingle | Wenwu Zeng Xianmin Zhou Baocai Du Lu Hu Cong Xie Wen Wang Youyu Jiang Tao Wang Yinhua Zhou Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells Advanced Energy & Sustainability Research alcohol-processed ethoxylated polyethylenimine chemical reactivities interfacial layers nonfullerene solar cells surface modification |
| title | Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells |
| title_full | Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells |
| title_fullStr | Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells |
| title_full_unstemmed | Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells |
| title_short | Minimizing the Thickness of Ethoxylated Polyethylenimine to Produce Stable Low‐Work Function Interface for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells |
| title_sort | minimizing the thickness of ethoxylated polyethylenimine to produce stable low work function interface for nonfullerene organic solar cells |
| topic | alcohol-processed ethoxylated polyethylenimine chemical reactivities interfacial layers nonfullerene solar cells surface modification |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/aesr.202000094 |
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