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Updated: Apr 27, 2026

In situ Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering on Roll-To-Roll Coating of Organic Solar Cells with Laboratory X-ray Instrumentation
Published on: March 2, 2021
Impact of the electron-transport layer on the performance of solution-processed small-molecule organic solar cells
Guankui Long1, Xiangjian Wan, Bin Kan
1Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Institute of Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 (PR China).
Abstract:
Although the performance of polymer solar cells has been improved significantly recently through careful optimization with different interlayers for the same materials, more improvement is needed in this respect for small-molecule-based solar cells, particularly for the electron-transport layers (ETLs). In this work, three different solution-processed ETLs, PFN, ZnO nanoparticles, and LiF, were investigated and compared in the performance of small-molecule-based devices, and power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 8.32, 7.30, and 7.38% were achieved, respectively. The mechanism for the ETL-induced enhancement has been studied, and different ETLs have a significantly different impact on the device performance. The clearly improved performance of PFN is attributed to the combination of reduced bimolecular recombination and increased effective photon absorption in the active layer.

