Suppressing Trap-Assisted Nonradiative Recombination via Interface Modification for Achieving Efficient Organic Solar Cells

Trap states in organic solar cells (OSCs) can capture free charges, leading to a reduction in current density and significant energy loss. Since charge collection is primarily dependent on the interface layer, minimizing trap states at interfaces can effectively suppress energy losses, a topic that has been rarely explored. Herein, an interface strategy is proposed by combining Me-4PACz and PEDOT:PSS to mitigate the trap-assisted nonradiative recombination at the hole transport layer (HTL). OSCs based on the Me-4PACz/PEDOT:PSS exhibit reduced trap densities and low energy losses compared to devices fabricated with a single-layer HTL. This reduction can be attributed to a lower nonradiative recombination rate during hole transport at the interface. Changes in the work function of the two interlayers due to contact result in the existence of a built-in potential inside the composite interlayer, promoting charge collection and reducing energy loss from charge recombination. Furthermore, the composite HTL interface induces vertical phase separation of active layer, leading to significant improvements of the fill factor for OSCs. As a result, high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 18.70% and 19.02% are achieved for binary all-polymer solar cells and polymer donor/small molecule acceptor solar cells, respectively.