Textured Inorganic Perovskite Interlayer Enhances Carrier Extraction for Organic Solar Cells

The PEDOT:PSS has been utilized extensively as a hole transport layer (HTL) in organic solar cells (OSCs) due to its excellent compatibility with various bulk heterojunction (BHJ) active layers. However, its intrinsically low electrical conductivity and suboptimal surface morphology limit hole extraction, ultimately constraining the performance of OSCs. To address this, we constructed an advanced heterojunction interface by introducing a wide-bandgap perovskite (CsPbBr₃) interlayer between the PEDOT:PSS and BHJ. The textured CsPbBr₃ interlayer serves as an efficient hole transport modifier by enhancing extraction and transport efficiency, while simultaneously functioning as an energy donor via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and as a photosensitizer capable of generating photocarriers independently through its intrinsic optoelectronic properties. This synergetic enhancement of charge generation, extraction, and transport properties resulted in an increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PM6:Y6-based OSCs from 16.80% to 17.74%, along with improved photocurrent and fill factor (FF). The universality of this approach was further demonstrated in state-of-the-art PM6:BTP-eC9:L8-BO systems, achieving a PCE of 19.02%. Our work elucidates the multifunctional role of CsPbBr₃ in managing interfacial properties, presenting a feasible interface engineering strategy to achieve high-performance OSCs.