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Title: Inverted organic solar cells with non-clustering bathocuproine (BCP) cathode interlayers obtained by fullerene doping

Abstract

Bathocuproine (BCP) is a well-studied cathode interlayer in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices, where it for standard device configurations has demonstrated improved electron extraction as well as exciton blocking properties, leading to high device efficiencies. For inverted devices, however, BCP interlayers has shown to lead to device failure, mainly due to the clustering of BCP molecules on indium tin oxide (ITO) surfaces, which is a significant problem during scale-up of the OPV devices. In this work, we introduce C70 doped BCP thin films as cathode interlayers in inverted OPV devices. We demonstrate that the interlayer forms smooth films on ITO surfaces, resulting from the introduction of C70 molecules into the BCP film, and that these films possess both improved electron extraction as well exciton blocking properties, as evidenced by electron-only devices and photoluminescence studies, respectively. Importantly, the improved cathode interlayers leads to well-functioning large area (100 mm2) devices, showing a device yield of 100%. This is in strong contrast to inverted devices based on pure BCP layers. These results are founded by the effective suppression of BCP clustering from C70, along with the electron transport and exciton blocking properties of the two materials, which thus presents a route for its integrationmore » as an interlayer material towards up-scaled inverted OPV devices.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [2];  [5]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Univ. of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg (Denmark). Mads Clausen Inst. SDU NanoSYD; Yazd Univ., Yazd (Iran). Faculty of Physics. Atomic and Molecular Groups
  2. Univ. of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg (Denmark). Mads Clausen Inst. SDU NanoSYD
  3. Univ. of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg (Denmark). Mads Clausen Inst. SDU NanoSYD; Yazd Univ., Yazd (Iran). Faculty of Physics. Atomic and Molecular Groups; Isfahan Univ., Isfahan (Iran). Dept. of Textile Engineering
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry. National Center for Electron Microscopy
  5. Yazd Univ., Yazd (Iran). Faculty of Physics. Atomic and Molecular Groups
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1624481
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Science & Technology - Other Topics

Citation Formats

Jafari, Fatemeh, Patil, Bhushan R., Mohtaram, Fatemeh, Cauduro, André L. Fernandes, Rubahn, Horst-Günter, Behjat, Abbas, and Madsen, Morten. Inverted organic solar cells with non-clustering bathocuproine (BCP) cathode interlayers obtained by fullerene doping. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46854-w.
Jafari, Fatemeh, Patil, Bhushan R., Mohtaram, Fatemeh, Cauduro, André L. Fernandes, Rubahn, Horst-Günter, Behjat, Abbas, & Madsen, Morten. Inverted organic solar cells with non-clustering bathocuproine (BCP) cathode interlayers obtained by fullerene doping. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46854-w
Jafari, Fatemeh, Patil, Bhushan R., Mohtaram, Fatemeh, Cauduro, André L. Fernandes, Rubahn, Horst-Günter, Behjat, Abbas, and Madsen, Morten. Thu . "Inverted organic solar cells with non-clustering bathocuproine (BCP) cathode interlayers obtained by fullerene doping". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46854-w. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1624481.
@article{osti_1624481,
title = {Inverted organic solar cells with non-clustering bathocuproine (BCP) cathode interlayers obtained by fullerene doping},
author = {Jafari, Fatemeh and Patil, Bhushan R. and Mohtaram, Fatemeh and Cauduro, André L. Fernandes and Rubahn, Horst-Günter and Behjat, Abbas and Madsen, Morten},
abstractNote = {Bathocuproine (BCP) is a well-studied cathode interlayer in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices, where it for standard device configurations has demonstrated improved electron extraction as well as exciton blocking properties, leading to high device efficiencies. For inverted devices, however, BCP interlayers has shown to lead to device failure, mainly due to the clustering of BCP molecules on indium tin oxide (ITO) surfaces, which is a significant problem during scale-up of the OPV devices. In this work, we introduce C70 doped BCP thin films as cathode interlayers in inverted OPV devices. We demonstrate that the interlayer forms smooth films on ITO surfaces, resulting from the introduction of C70 molecules into the BCP film, and that these films possess both improved electron extraction as well exciton blocking properties, as evidenced by electron-only devices and photoluminescence studies, respectively. Importantly, the improved cathode interlayers leads to well-functioning large area (100 mm2) devices, showing a device yield of 100%. This is in strong contrast to inverted devices based on pure BCP layers. These results are founded by the effective suppression of BCP clustering from C70, along with the electron transport and exciton blocking properties of the two materials, which thus presents a route for its integration as an interlayer material towards up-scaled inverted OPV devices.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-46854-w},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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