Dual-Use Self-Assembled Monolayer Controlling Charge Carrier Extraction in Organic Solar Cells

The development and use of interface materials are essential to the continued advancement of organic solar cells (OSCs) performance. Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) materials have drawn attention because of their simple structure and affordable price. Due to their unique properties, they may be used in inverted devices as a modification layer for modifying ZnO or as a hole transport layer (HTL) in place of typical poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) in conventional devices. In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO) is modified using five structurally similar SAM materials. This resulted in a smoother surface, a decrease in work function, a suppression of charge recombination, and an increase in device efficiency and photostability. In addition, they can introduced asfor hole extraction layer between the active layer and MoO3, enabling the use of the same material at several functional layers in the same device. Through systematic orthogonal evaluation, it is shown that some SAM/active layer/SAM combinations still offered device efficiencies comparable to ZnO/SAM, but with improved device' photostability. This study may provide recommendations for future SAM material's design and development as well as a strategy for boosting device performance by using the same material across both sides of the photoactive layer in OSCs. The introduction of a Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) for modification of zinc oxide enhances device performance and stability. Interestingly, employing the same SAM material on both sides of the active layer (PM6:Y6) ensures high performance and superior stability of the device. This work underscores the effectiveness of this approach as a viable strategy for achieving stable and high-efficiency solar cells.image