Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell Performance
Abstract Carbazole‐based self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) materials as hole transport layers (HTL) have led organic solar cells (OSCs) to state‐of‐the‐art photovoltaic performance. Nonetheless, the impact of the alkyl spacer length of SAMs remains inadequately understood. To improve the knowledge, fou...
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2025-01-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202410277 |
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| author | Qiaonan Chen Kangbo Sun Leandro R. Franco Jingnan Wu Lars Öhrström Xianjie Liu Maureen Gumbo Mailde S. Ozório C. Moyses Araujo Guangye Zhang André Johansson Ellen Moons Mats Fahlman Donghong Yu Yufei Wang Ergang Wang |
| author_facet | Qiaonan Chen Kangbo Sun Leandro R. Franco Jingnan Wu Lars Öhrström Xianjie Liu Maureen Gumbo Mailde S. Ozório C. Moyses Araujo Guangye Zhang André Johansson Ellen Moons Mats Fahlman Donghong Yu Yufei Wang Ergang Wang |
| author_sort | Qiaonan Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Carbazole‐based self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) materials as hole transport layers (HTL) have led organic solar cells (OSCs) to state‐of‐the‐art photovoltaic performance. Nonetheless, the impact of the alkyl spacer length of SAMs remains inadequately understood. To improve the knowledge, four dichloride‐substituted carbazole‐based SAMs (from 2Cl‐2PACz to 2Cl‐5PACz) with spacer lengths of 2–5 carbon atoms is developed. Single crystal analyses reveal that SAMs with shorter spacers exhibit stronger intermolecular interactions and denser packing. The molecular conformation of SAMs significantly impacts their molecular footprint and coverage on ITO. These factors result in the highest coverage of 2Cl‐2PACz and the lowest coverage for 2Cl‐3PACz on ITO. OSCs based on PM6:L8‐BO with 2Cl‐2PACz as HTL achieved high efficiencies of 18.95% and 18.62% with and without methanol rinsing of the ITO/SAMs anodes, corresponding to monolayer and multilayer structures, respectively. In contrast, OSCs utilizing the other SAMs showed decreased efficiencies as spacer length increased. The superior performance of 2Cl‐2PACz can be attributed to its shorter spacer, which reduces series resistance, hole tunneling distance, and barrier. This work provides valuable insights into the design of SAMs for high‐performance OSCs. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8c6449e231af42a9b3f9d12c2d0ed051 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2198-3844 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advanced Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-8c6449e231af42a9b3f9d12c2d0ed0512025-01-29T09:50:19ZengWileyAdvanced Science2198-38442025-01-01124n/an/a10.1002/advs.202410277Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell PerformanceQiaonan Chen0Kangbo Sun1Leandro R. Franco2Jingnan Wu3Lars Öhrström4Xianjie Liu5Maureen Gumbo6Mailde S. Ozório7C. Moyses Araujo8Guangye Zhang9André Johansson10Ellen Moons11Mats Fahlman12Donghong Yu13Yufei Wang14Ergang Wang15Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 SwedenCollege of New Materials and New Energies Shenzhen Technology University Shenzhen 518118 ChinaDepartment of Engineering and Physics Karlstad University Karlstad 65188 SwedenDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 SwedenDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 SwedenDepartment of Science and Technology Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE) Linköping University Norrköping 60174 SwedenDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 SwedenDepartment of Chemistry University of Copenhagen Universitetsparken 5 Copenhagen DK‐2100 DenmarkDepartment of Engineering and Physics Karlstad University Karlstad 65188 SwedenCollege of New Materials and New Energies Shenzhen Technology University Shenzhen 518118 ChinaDepartment of Engineering and Physics Karlstad University Karlstad 65188 SwedenDepartment of Engineering and Physics Karlstad University Karlstad 65188 SwedenDepartment of Science and Technology Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE) Linköping University Norrköping 60174 SwedenDepartmetnt of Chemistry and Bioscience Aalborg University Aalborg DK‐9220 DenmarkCollege of New Materials and New Energies Shenzhen Technology University Shenzhen 518118 ChinaDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology Göteborg SE‐412 96 SwedenAbstract Carbazole‐based self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) materials as hole transport layers (HTL) have led organic solar cells (OSCs) to state‐of‐the‐art photovoltaic performance. Nonetheless, the impact of the alkyl spacer length of SAMs remains inadequately understood. To improve the knowledge, four dichloride‐substituted carbazole‐based SAMs (from 2Cl‐2PACz to 2Cl‐5PACz) with spacer lengths of 2–5 carbon atoms is developed. Single crystal analyses reveal that SAMs with shorter spacers exhibit stronger intermolecular interactions and denser packing. The molecular conformation of SAMs significantly impacts their molecular footprint and coverage on ITO. These factors result in the highest coverage of 2Cl‐2PACz and the lowest coverage for 2Cl‐3PACz on ITO. OSCs based on PM6:L8‐BO with 2Cl‐2PACz as HTL achieved high efficiencies of 18.95% and 18.62% with and without methanol rinsing of the ITO/SAMs anodes, corresponding to monolayer and multilayer structures, respectively. In contrast, OSCs utilizing the other SAMs showed decreased efficiencies as spacer length increased. The superior performance of 2Cl‐2PACz can be attributed to its shorter spacer, which reduces series resistance, hole tunneling distance, and barrier. This work provides valuable insights into the design of SAMs for high‐performance OSCs.https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202410277alkyl spacer lengthintermolecular interactionmolecular conformationself‐assembled monolayer (SAM)single crystals |
| spellingShingle | Qiaonan Chen Kangbo Sun Leandro R. Franco Jingnan Wu Lars Öhrström Xianjie Liu Maureen Gumbo Mailde S. Ozório C. Moyses Araujo Guangye Zhang André Johansson Ellen Moons Mats Fahlman Donghong Yu Yufei Wang Ergang Wang Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell Performance Advanced Science alkyl spacer length intermolecular interaction molecular conformation self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) single crystals |
| title | Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell Performance |
| title_full | Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell Performance |
| title_fullStr | Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell Performance |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell Performance |
| title_short | Effects of Alkyl Spacer Length in Carbazole‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer Materials on Molecular Conformation and Organic Solar Cell Performance |
| title_sort | effects of alkyl spacer length in carbazole based self assembled monolayer materials on molecular conformation and organic solar cell performance |
| topic | alkyl spacer length intermolecular interaction molecular conformation self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) single crystals |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202410277 |
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