Enhancing the Performance of Polymer Photovoltaic Cells by Using an Alcohol Soluble Fullerene Derivative as the Interfacial Layer

Alcohol soluble fullerene derivative (FN-C60) has been synthesized and used as a cathode interfacial layer for high-efficiency polymer solar cells (PSCs). To examine the function of the FN-C60 interfacial layer, polymer solar cells were fabricated with blends of P3:PC₇₁BM, HXS-1:PC₇₁BM, PDFCDTBT:PC₇₁BM, and PDPQTBT:PC₇₁BM as the active layer. In comparison to the bare Al electrode, power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of P3:PC₇₁BM, HXS-1:PC₇₁BM, PDFCDTBT:PC₇₁BM, and PDPQTBT:PC₇₁BM based PSCs were increased from 3.50 to 4.64%, 4.69 to 5.25%, 2.70 to 4.60%, and 1.52 to 2.29%, respectively, when FN-C60/Al was used as the electrode. Moreover, the overall photovoltaic performances of PSCs with the FN-C60/Al electrode were better than those of cells with LiF/Al electrode, indicating that FN-C60 is a potential interfacial layer material to replace LiF.