Improving the performance of ternary organic solar cells using metal oxides as charge-transport layers

In this study, we improved the performance of ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) using metal oxides (p-type NiOx and n-type SnO2) as the charge-transport layers (CTLs). The use of NiOx and SnO2 can facilitate charge transportation and suppress charge recombination in PM6:IDIC:Y6-based ternary OSCs, which is beneficial for boosting their performance. As a result, the OSCs with CTLs of NiOx and SnO2 exhibited an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.2% (on average), which is higher than that (15.1%) of the control OSCs using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) and LiF as the CTLs. The stability of the OSCs was simultaneously improved with the PCE degradation significantly suppressed upon using NiOx and SnO2. After 10 days of storage and measurement under ambient conditions, the PCE degradation was dramatically decreased from 49.7% to 20.3%, which was induced by the high intrinsic stability of NiOx and SnO2. The best OSC using the CTLs of NiOx and SnO2 showed a champion PCE of 16.6%, with a stable power output and negligible hysteresis.