Efficient light harvesting with a nanostructured organic electron-transporting layer in perovskite solar cells.

Nanostructures have proved to be advantageous in light harvesting, improving the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of photovoltaic devices. However, the reported light-harvesting nanostructures all require extra processing beyond that for device fabrication, with multiple steps for nano-patterned structures or plasmonic nano-particles. Here we synthesized a conjugated polymer PFPDI which could simply form a nanostructured film on perovskite by spin coating.

Recent Advance in Solution-Processed Organic Interlayers for High-Performance Planar Perovskite Solar Cells.

Planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells (PSCs) provide great potential for fabricating high-efficiency, low-cost, large-area, and flexible photovoltaic devices. In planar PSCs, a perovskite absorber is sandwiched between hole and electron transport materials. The charge-transporting interlayers play an important role in enhancing charge extraction, transport, and collection.

Perylene Diimide-Based Zwitterion as the Cathode Interlayer for High-Performance Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells.

Nonfullerene polymer solar cells (PSCs) have earned widespread and intense interest on account of their properties such as tunable energy levels, potential for low-cost production processes, reduced energy losses, and strong light absorption coefficients. Here, a water-/alcohol-soluble zwitterion perylene diimide zwitterion (PDI-z) consisted of sulfobetaine ion as a terminal substituent and PDI as a conjugated core was synthesized. PDI-z was employed as an electron-transport layer (ETL) for nonfullerene PSC devices, obtaining an optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) above 11.

A PTB7-based narrow band-gap conjugated polyelectrolyte as an efficient cathode interlayer in PTB7-based polymer solar cells.

A PTB7-based cationic narrow band-gap polyelectrolyte, named PTB7-NBr, has been designed and synthesized as a cathode interfacial material for polymer solar cells. PTB7-NBr exhibits excellent cathode interfacial modification in solar cells with PTB7 and PTB7-Th as donor polymer and a high PCE of 9.24% was achieved.

Realizing Highly Efficient Inverted Photovoltaic Cells by Combination of Nonconjugated Small-Molecule Zwitterions with Polyethylene Glycol.

Organic ionic materials have been reported to be efficient cathode interlayer (CIL) materials in polymer solar cells (PSCs); however, most of them are employed in conventional PSCs. For an inverted structural device which has better stability, the efficiency is still far from expectation and the report is also limited. In this study, by using nonconjugated zwitterions as the CIL and inverted structure, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is ∼6%, though the PCE can reach 9.

High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells with PCE of 10.42% via Al-Doped ZnO Cathode Interlayer.

High-performance polymer solar cells incorporating a low-temperature-processed aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) cathode interlayer are constructed with power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.42% based on PTB7-Th:PC71 BM blends (insensitive to the AZO thickness). Moreover, flexible devices on poly(ethylene terephthalate)/indium tin oxide substrates with PCE of 8.