Simple Solvent Treatment Enabled Improved PEDOT:PSS Performance toward Highly Efficient Binary Organic Solar Cells

PEDOT:PSS is the most popular hole-transporting material (HTM) for conventional structural organic solar cell (OSC) devices, whose performance is of great importance for realizing high power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, its performance in OSC devices has been continuously challenged by various replacing materials and different doping strategies, for better conductivity, work function, and surface property. Here, we report a simple dopant-free method to tune the phase separation of the PEDOT:PSS layer, which results in better charge transport and extraction in devices. Specifically, high PCEs for binary polymersmall-molecule (>18%) and polymer-polymer (>17%) systems are simultaneously achieved. This work engineeringly provides encouraging improvement for OSC device performance with easy modification and scientifically offers insights into tuning the property of the PEDOT:PSS layer.

Automated summary

This study reports a simple dopant-free method to improve charge transport and extraction in devices by tuning the phase separation of the PEDOT:PSS layer, leading to high power conversion efficiency. This method achieves excellent performance in both binary polymer-small molecule and polymer-polymer systems.