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Organic solar cells with 21% efficiency enabled by a hybrid interfacial layer with dual-component synergy

Nature Materials volume 24, pages 1626–1634 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The cathode interfacial layer (CIL) critically influences electron extraction and charge recombination, thereby playing a pivotal role in organic solar cells (OSCs). However, most state-of-the-art CILs are constrained by limited conductivity, high recombination and poor morphology, which collectively hinder device efficiency and stability. Here we report an inorganic–organic hybrid CIL (AZnO-F3N), developed by a dual-component synergy strategy, which integrates organic material PNDIT-F3N with two-dimensional amorphous zinc oxide. This design leverages the synergistic interactions between two-dimensional amorphous zinc oxide and PNDIT-F3N, resulting in reduced interfacial defect, enhanced conductivity and improved film uniformity. OSCs incorporating the AZnO-F3N CIL exhibit more efficient charge extraction and transport, along with reduced recombination. Consequently, a D18:L8-BO-based binary OSC achieves an efficiency of 20.6%. The introduction of BTP-eC9 as the third component further elevates the efficiency to 21.0% (certified as 20.8%). Moreover, the CIL demonstrates versatility across various active layers, thick-film configuration and flexible devices, underscoring its great potential to advance OSC technology.

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Fig. 1: Synthesis and characterizations of 2D A-ZnO.
Fig. 2: Morphology investigations.
Fig. 3: Dual-component synergy of F3N and 2D A-ZnO.
Fig. 4: Photovoltaic performance.
Fig. 5: Device physics and ultrafast process characterization.

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Source data are provided with this paper. The remaining data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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The codes used to analyse the data in this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52450063, 52473200, 52120105006 and 51532001), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB0520103), National Key R&D Program of China (no. 2024YFB3614300), the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (124GJHZ2023079MI), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. A portion of this work is based on the data obtained at BSRF-1W1A. We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the beamline scientists at BSRF-1W1A beamline and also thank BL10B in NSRL for characterizations by synchrotron radiation.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Congqi Li, Yunhao Cai, Pengfei Hu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering CAS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation CAS Key Laboratory of Vacuum Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Congqi Li, Yunhao Cai, Meng Zhang, Jikai Lv, Meng Zhang, Qijie Lin, Jiarui Wang, Xin Zhang, Xiaoyi Li & Hui Huang

  2. School of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Pengfei Hu, Tao Liu & Lin Guo

  3. Research Institute of Aero-Engine, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Pengfei Hu

  4. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Thermal Aging, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Lei Zhu, Rui Zeng, Fei Han, Ming Zhang & Feng Liu

  5. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Huairou Research Center, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yuanxin Ma & Zihao Xu

  6. School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Key Laboratory of Organic Integrated Circuits, Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Dexia Han & Long Ye

  7. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Center of Smart Materials and Devices School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Life Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China

    Jingwen Xu & Jianlong Xia

  8. Center for Advanced Low-Dimension Materials State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, China

    Na Yu & Zheng Tang

  9. School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, China

    Jiawei Qiao & Xiaotao Hao

  10. School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Qian Peng

  11. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Low-Carbon Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Hui Huang

  12. The International Joint Institute of Tianjin University, Fuzhou, China

    Hui Huang

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  1. Congqi Li
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Contributions

H.H. and Y.C. developed the concept and conceived the idea. Y.C., L.G. and H.H. supervised and directed this project. C.L. fabricated and characterized the devices and carried out detailed characterizations. P.H., T.L. and Meng Zhang (https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9866-3749) synthesized the 2D A-ZnO. Z.X., Y.M., J. Xu and J. Xia provided the transient absorption spectra results and corresponding analysis. L.Z., R.Z., Ming Zhang, F.H. and F.L. provided the morphology measurement and corresponding analysis. Meng Zhang (https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4058-8927) and X.L. conducted the first-principles calculation and related analysis. J.L. and Q.P. provided the energy-level-related calculation and corresponding analysis. D.H. and L.Y. fabricated the IS-OSCs devices and provided the related data. Q.L. and J.W. carried out the TPV, TPC and Mott–Schottky-related characterization and analysed the data. N.Y. and Z.T. provided the energy loss results. J.Q. and X.H. provided the fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy and time-resolved photoluminescence results. C.L., Y.C., P.H., F.L., L.G. and H.H. organized the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

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Correspondence to Yunhao Cai, Lin Guo or Hui Huang.

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Li, C., Cai, Y., Hu, P. et al. Organic solar cells with 21% efficiency enabled by a hybrid interfacial layer with dual-component synergy. Nat. Mater. 24, 1626–1634 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02305-8

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