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Layered Defect-Filling co-Assembled Carbazole-Based SAMs Deliver 20% Organic Solar Cells and 17% Mini-Modules
Jingnan Wu1, Fengbo Sun2, Leandro R Franco3
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96, Göteborg, Sweden. jingnanw@chalmers.se.
A new co-assembled multilayered self-assembled monolayer (coSAMu) strategy improves organic solar cell (OSC) performance by creating defect-free interfaces. This approach enhances efficiency and scalability for next-generation solar technologies.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Organic Electronics
- Surface Chemistry
Background:
- Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are crucial hole-transport layers (HTLs) in organic solar cells (OSCs).
- Conventional single-component SAMs suffer from incomplete coverage and interfacial defects, hindering device performance and scalability.
- These defects become more problematic as organic solar cell size increases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a co-assembled multilayered SAM (coSAMu) strategy for enhanced organic solar cell (OSC) interface engineering.
- To investigate the structural and electronic properties of coSAMu using various characterization techniques and molecular simulations.
- To evaluate the impact of coSAMu on the performance and scalability of organic solar cells (OSCs).
Main Methods:
- Co-assembly of two SAM molecules (2PACz and 2Cl-4PACz) using blend and sequential casting techniques.
- Characterization using photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray analysis.
- Molecular simulations to understand the layered structure and interfacial properties.
- Fabrication and testing of organic solar cells (OSCs) and mini-modules with coSAMu HTLs.
Main Results:
- A layered structure was confirmed, with distinct roles for each SAM molecule in setting work function, filling voids, and passivating defects.
- coSAMu promoted favorable vertical composition and suppressed trap-assisted recombination, leading to improved charge extraction.
- A D18:L8-BO OSC with sequential-cast coSAMu achieved a power conversion efficiency of 20.1%.
- Scaled-up mini-modules (17.14 cm²) demonstrated significantly improved efficiency (17.0%) compared to controls (12.2%).
Conclusions:
- Controlled multilayer co-assembly is an effective strategy for scalable organic solar cell (OSC) interface engineering.
- coSAMu significantly enhances OSC performance and addresses limitations of conventional SAMs.
- This approach is broadly applicable to various donor-acceptor systems in organic solar cells (OSCs).
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