Printable and Semitransparent Nonfullerene Organic Solar Modules over 30 cm2 Introducing an Energy-Level Controllable Hole Transport Layer

For the commercialization of organic solar cells (OSCs), the fabrication of large-area modules via a solution process is important. The fabrication of OSCs via a solution process using a nonfullerene acceptor (NFA)-based photoactive layer is limited by the energetic mismatch and carrier recombination, reducing built-in potential and effective carriers. Herein, for the fabrication of high-performance NFA-based large-area OSCs and modules via a solution process, hybrid hole transport layers (h-HTLs) incorporating WO3 and MoO3 are developed. The high bond energies and electro-negativities of W and Mo atoms afford changes in the electronic properties of the h-HTLs, which can allow easy control of the energy levels. The h-HTLs show matching energy levels that are suitable for both deep and low-lying highest occupied molecular orbital energy level systems with a stoichiometrically small amount of oxygen vacancies (forming W6+ and Mo6+ from the W5+ and Mo5+), affording high conductivity and good film forming properties. With the NFA-based photoactive layer, a large-area module fabricated via the all-printing process with an active area over 30 cm(2) and a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.1% is obtained. Furthermore, with the h-HTL, the fabricated semitransparent module exhibits 7.2% of PCE and 22.3% of average visible transmittance with high transparency, indicating applicable various industrial potentials.

Automated summary

By incorporating WO3 and MoO3 into hybrid hole transport layers (h-HTLs), changes in electronic properties were achieved, allowing for easy control of energy levels and the fabrication of high-performance NFA-based large-area OSCs and modules via a solution process.