TY - JOUR
T1 - 17% Efficient Organic Solar Cells Based on Liquid Exfoliated WS2 as a Replacement for PEDOT:PSS
AU - Lin, Yuanbao
AU - Adilbekova, Begimai
AU - Firdaus, Yuliar
AU - Yengel, Emre
AU - Faber, Hendrik
AU - Sajjad, Muhammad
AU - Zheng, Xiaopeng
AU - Yarali, Emre
AU - Seitkhan, Akmaral
AU - Bakr, Osman M.
AU - El-Labban, Abdulrahman
AU - Schwingenschlögl, Udo
AU - Tung, Vincent
AU - McCulloch, Iain
AU - Laquai, Frédéric
AU - Anthopoulos, Thomas D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - The application of liquid-exfoliated 2D transition metal disulfides (TMDs) as the hole transport layers (HTLs) in nonfullerene-based organic solar cells is reported. It is shown that solution processing of few-layer WS2 or MoS2 suspensions directly onto transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes changes their work function without the need for any further treatment. HTLs comprising WS2 are found to exhibit higher uniformity on ITO than those of MoS2 and consistently yield solar cells with superior power conversion efficiency (PCE), improved fill factor (FF), enhanced short-circuit current (JSC), and lower series resistance than devices based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) and MoS2. Cells based on the ternary bulk-heterojunction PBDB-T-2F:Y6:PC71BM with WS2 as the HTL exhibit the highest PCE of 17%, with an FF of 78%, open-circuit voltage of 0.84 V, and a JSC of 26 mA cm−2. Analysis of the cells' optical and carrier recombination characteristics indicates that the enhanced performance is most likely attributed to a combination of favorable photonic structure and reduced bimolecular recombination losses in WS2-based cells. The achieved PCE is the highest reported to date for organic solar cells comprised of 2D charge transport interlayers and highlights the potential of TMDs as inexpensive HTLs for high-efficiency organic photovoltaics.
AB - The application of liquid-exfoliated 2D transition metal disulfides (TMDs) as the hole transport layers (HTLs) in nonfullerene-based organic solar cells is reported. It is shown that solution processing of few-layer WS2 or MoS2 suspensions directly onto transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes changes their work function without the need for any further treatment. HTLs comprising WS2 are found to exhibit higher uniformity on ITO than those of MoS2 and consistently yield solar cells with superior power conversion efficiency (PCE), improved fill factor (FF), enhanced short-circuit current (JSC), and lower series resistance than devices based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) and MoS2. Cells based on the ternary bulk-heterojunction PBDB-T-2F:Y6:PC71BM with WS2 as the HTL exhibit the highest PCE of 17%, with an FF of 78%, open-circuit voltage of 0.84 V, and a JSC of 26 mA cm−2. Analysis of the cells' optical and carrier recombination characteristics indicates that the enhanced performance is most likely attributed to a combination of favorable photonic structure and reduced bimolecular recombination losses in WS2-based cells. The achieved PCE is the highest reported to date for organic solar cells comprised of 2D charge transport interlayers and highlights the potential of TMDs as inexpensive HTLs for high-efficiency organic photovoltaics.
KW - 2D transition metal disulfides
KW - MoS
KW - WS
KW - hole transport layers
KW - liquid exfoliation
KW - nonfullerene organic solar cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073981506&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/adma.201902965
DO - 10.1002/adma.201902965
M3 - Article
C2 - 31566264
AN - SCOPUS:85073981506
SN - 0935-9648
VL - 31
JO - Advanced Materials
JF - Advanced Materials
IS - 46
M1 - 1902965
ER -