Pseudo-bilayer architecture enables high-performance organic solar cells with enhanced exciton diffusion length

20 Jan 2021

Published on Nature Communications (20 January 2021)

Author(s): Kui Jiang,Jie Zhang,Zhengxing Peng,Francis Lin,Shengfan Wu,Zhen Li,Yuzhong Chen, He Yan*, Harald Ade*,Zonglong Zhu*&Alex K.-Y. Jen*

Abstract

Solution-processed organic solar cells (OSCs) are a promising candidate for next-generation photovoltaic technologies. However, the short exciton diffusion length of the bulk heterojunction active layer in OSCs strongly hampers the full potential to be realized in these bulk heterojunction OSCs. Herein, we report high-performance OSCs with a pseudo-bilayer architecture, which possesses longer exciton diffusion length benefited from higher film crystallinity. This feature ensures the synergistic advantages of efficient exciton dissociation and charge transport in OSCs with pseudo-bilayer architecture, enabling a higher power conversion efficiency (17.42%) to be achieved compared to those with bulk heterojunction architecture (16.44%) due to higher short-circuit current density and fill factor. A certified efficiency of 16.31% is also achieved for the ternary OSC with a pseudo-bilayer active layer. Our results demonstrate the excellent potential for pseudo-bilayer architecture to be used for future OSC applications.

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