Polypyridyl complexes as electron transporting materials for inverted bulk heterojunction solar cells: The metal center effect

Renata Balgley, Martin Drees, Tatyana Bendikov, Michal Lahav, Antonio Facchetti*, Milko E. Van Der Boom

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

The fundamental science behind the design of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells lies in the formation of energy level gradients for efficient charge separation and collection. Tuning the energy levels at the device electrodes by the right choice of the components is a key requirement for achieving enhanced characteristics. Here we demonstrate control and optimization of OPV cell performance by using a set of polypyridyl complexes based on iron, ruthenium, and osmium centers with tunable frontier orbital energies as interlayers for inverted bulk heterojunction solar cells. We found that changing the metal center of isostructural transition-metal complexes results in evident shifts of the HOMO and LUMO energy levels and the work functions of the corresponding interlayers, which has a prominent effect on the device performance. We generalize our approach by combining the interlayers with different sets of photoactive materials to test the electron transporting as well as the hole blocking characteristics of the interlayers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4634-4639
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry C
Volume4
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Funding

This research was supported by the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Molecular Design, AERI, Mary and Tom Beck-Canadian Center for Alternative Energy Research, the USnIsrael Binational Science Foundation (BSF), and the Ministry of Science, Technology & Space, Israel. M. E. vdB. is the incumbent of the Bruce A. Pearlman Professorial Chair in Synthetic Organic Chemistry.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry

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