Public Research Seminar by Advanced Materials Thrust, Function Hub, HKUST(GZ) - Enhanced Performance and Stability of Organic Photovoltaics by Interface and Photo-Active Layer Engineering
Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have received tremendous attention in recent years due to their numerous attractive attributes such as, the potential for high power conversion efficiency (PCE), mechanical flexibility, and the potential for large-scale manufacturing via low-cost techniques. To date, the record PCE values for bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) OPVs exceed 19% for single-junction cells thanks to the rapid development of donors and acceptors materials for active layer. However, the progress of hole-transporting layer (HTL) systems, has been limited with only a handful of materials available like PEDOT:PSS and MoOX. In this presentation, I will introduce serval materials to unitize as hole-selective contacts i.e. 2D transition metal disulfides, and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in high-performance and stable OPVs.
In addition to advanced interface layers, molecular doping is a simple way to improve the efficiency and stability of OPVs, which has been widely exploited in organic semiconductor devices including organic field-effect transistors and organic light-emitting diodes. Hence, I will introduce some n-type small molecules i.e. diquat (DQ) and benzyl viologen (BV) in BHJ, which act as dopant and morphology modifiers in photo-active layer. Lastly, a nonfullerene acceptor, isoIDITC, capable of exhibiting fibril-like morphology, is utilized as a third component in OPVs. A power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19% is achieved in ternary PM6:BTP-eC9:isoIDITC BHJ devices.
My works highlight the interface and photo-active layer engineering toward high-performance and stable ternary OPVs.
Yuanbao Lin joined as a lecturer at the College of Education Sciences of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) in Jan. 2024. He gained his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) 2021, supervised by Prof. Thomas D. Anthopoulos. Then He joined as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oxford under guidance of Prof. Iain McCulloch, who now is the director at Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment of Princeton University. His current studies are about organic/perovskite photovoltaic, organic/perovskite semiconductors as photocatalysts. He has published over 50 papers and 2 authorized patents, and achieved over 5000 citations. Among them, 16 papers were published as the first author or the corresponding author while 6 of them are highly cited papers.