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Efficient Cathode Interfacial Materials Based on Triazine/Phosphine Oxide for Conventional and Inverted Organic Solar Cells

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Abstract

Cathode interfacial layers (CIL) have been applied in organic solar cells (OSCs) for the enhancement of photovoltaic characteristics. Most of them are employed in either conventional organic solar cells (COSCs) or inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs) only. Herein, we have designed and synthesized two cathode interfacial materials, namely, 3-(4,6-bis(4-bromophenoxy)-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-2,6-difluorophenyl)diphenylphosphine oxide (Br-PO-TAZ) and 4,4′-((6-(3-(diphenylphosphoryl)-2,4-difluorophenyl)-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diyl)bis(oxy))dibenzonitrile (CN-PO-TAZ), and utilized them as CILs for both COSCs and IOSCs. The incorporation of our new CIL layers significantly enhanced the photovoltaic performance compared to COSCs and IOSCs without the CILs. The CN-PO-TAZ exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.19% for COSCs and 8.33% for IOSCs, whereas Br-PO-TAZ yielded a PCE of 8.15% for COSCs and 8.23% for IOSCs, respectively. The improved performance was attributed to the multiple favorable factors: significantly reducing leakage current, decreasing series resistance, suppressing recombination, efficient charge transport and collection. Moreover, the CIL layers helped for sustaining device stability because they served as an internal shield against humidity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry Education, Graduate Department of Chemical Materials, Institute for Plastic Information and Energy Materials, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, Korea

    Um Kanta Aryal, Saripally Sudhaker Reddy, Jungmin Choi & Sung-Ho Jin

  2. Department of Nano Fusion Technology, Department of Nanoenergy Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, Korea

    Chae Young Woo & Hyung Woo Lee

  3. Department of Energy Science & Engineering, DGIST, 333, Daegu, 42988, Korea

    Seokhoon Jang & Youngu Lee

  4. Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, 44919, Korea

    Bong Soo Kim

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  1. Um Kanta Aryal
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Correspondence to Youngu Lee, Bong Soo Kim, Hyung Woo Lee or Sung-Ho Jin.

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Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF-2018R1A5A1025594) by the Ministry of Science, ICT of Korea.

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Aryal, U.K., Reddy, S.S., Choi, J. et al. Efficient Cathode Interfacial Materials Based on Triazine/Phosphine Oxide for Conventional and Inverted Organic Solar Cells. Macromol. Res. 28, 727–732 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13233-020-8086-0

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