High-performance semi-transparent organic solar cells driven by the dipole-controlled optoelectrical response of bilateral self-assembled monolayer strategy

A bilateral self-assembled monolayer (SAM) strategy is proposed to improve the performance of both opaque/ translucent and rigid/flexible organic solar cells (OSCs), which have great potential for various high-value ap-plications such as portable, building-integrated and vehicle-integrated photovoltaics. By applying the dipole-controlled SAMs to both ITO/ZnO and ZnO/active layer interfaces, the work function of the ZnO electron transport layer was reduced, which improved charge transport and reduced carrier recombination at the inter-face. The opaque OSCs with the bilateral SAM demonstrated significant performance improvement with power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) reaching 17.20% and 16.96% for rigid and flexible OSCs. When used in semi -transparent OSCs together with MoO3/Ag/MoO3 electrode, in semi-transparent (ST) OSCs, PCE and average visible transmittance (AVT) can be improved simultaneously, and 10.37% PCE and 36.27% AVT demonstrate a remarkable light utilization efficiency (LUE) of 3.85%. Finally, the large area (10 x 10 cm2) ST-OSC module was fabricated and demonstrated a PCE of 8.17% and LUE of 2.5%, among the best-reported values for inverted module devices. The developed bilateral SAM strategy can be useful in developing high-performance OSCs of both opaque/translucent and rigid/flexible types for various practical applications.