Publication date: 15th December 2025
Inverted organic solar cells (OSCs) offer enhanced environmental stability and processing compatibility, making them a preferred architecture for scalable photovoltaics compared to the conventional one. The most common electron transport layer (ETL) used in inverted structure OSCs is Zinc Oxide (ZnO), chosen for its high electron mobility, optical transparency in the visible range, and chemical stability. However, its photoinduced catalytic activity remains a key limitation, as it accelerates interfacial degradation, and to overcome this, effective surface passivation strategies are essential. [1]
In this study, we first introduce an ultra-thin lithium fluoride (LiF) layer onto the ZnO surface as a passivation layer to mitigate degradation effects. LiF interacts with oxygen species on the ZnO surface, reducing the influence of oxygen vacancies arising from incomplete sol-gel processing. Successful passivation is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) which shows a substantial reduction in surface oxygen content, leading to improved photostability of the cell.
Subsequently, the effect of an additional ultrathin LiF layer at the interface between ITO and ZnO is investigated. The results show that the introduction of the LiF layers at the ZnO interfaces, in cells with PTB7-Th:IEICO-4F:PCBM as active layer, enhances the photo-thermal stability of all key photovoltaic parameters such as power conversion efficiency (PCE), open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current density (Jsc), and fill factor (FF), under continuous operation. In particular, in the time span considered, Voc shows minimal degradation under combined thermal and illumination stress, a condition in which devices with conventional ZnO typically exhibit pronounced degradation.
Overall, this approach offers a simple, scalable, and effective route to improve both the operational stability and electronic performance of OSCs, making them more suitable for commercial implementation.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101081441
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