Low-Temperature UVO-Sintered ZnO/SnO<sub>2</sub> as Robust Cathode Buffer Layer for Ternary Organic Solar Cells
Zhijun Zou,
Fen Li,
Jing Fang,
Mingxin Chen,
Xiaoxiang Sun,
Chang Li,
Jiayou Tao,
Gaohua Liao,
Jianjun Zhang
Affiliations
Zhijun Zou
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Fen Li
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Jing Fang
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Mingxin Chen
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Xiaoxiang Sun
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Chang Li
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Jiayou Tao
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Gaohua Liao
Key Laboratory of Hunan Province on Information Photonics and Freespace Optical Communications, College of Physics and Electronics, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang 414006, China
Jianjun Zhang
College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
The cathode buffer layer (CBL) plays a crucial role in organic solar cells (OSCs), and it has been challenging to obtain high-quality CBL by using simple and reliable processes. In this paper, the bilayer structure consisting of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) and sol–gel SnO2 was prepared by the low-temperature (70BM. The results show that the insertion of SnO2 can effectively fill the cracks and pores on the surface of the ZnO NP film, thereby improving the overall compactness and flatness of the CBL and reducing the defect density inside the CBL. Furthermore, the insertion of SnO2 slightly improves the transmittance of the CBL to photons with wavelengths in the range of 400–600 nm, and also increases the electron mobility of the CBL thus facilitating the extraction and transport of the electrons. Compared to the devices using UVO-ZnO and UVO-SnO2 CBLs, the devices with UVO-ZnO/SnO2 CBL exhibit exceptional performance advantages, the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) reaches 10.56%. More importantly, the stability of the devices with ZnO/SnO2 CBL is significantly improved, the device (PCE) still maintains 60% of the initial value after 30 days in air. The positive results show that the UVO-ZnO/SnO2 is an ideal CBL for OSCs, and due to the low-temperature process, it has great application potential in flexible OSCs.
