Enhancing the indoor performance of organic photovoltaic devices: interface engineering with an aminobenzoic-acid-based self-assembled monolayer

Significant advances in the performance of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices can facilitate their use in Internet of Things applications. However, achieving excellent photostability and high efficiency using stable, efficient OPV devices in indoor settings is considerably difficult. To address this issue, a zinc oxide (ZnO) electron transport layer (ETL) was modified with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 4-aminobenzoic acid (ABA) in the present study, and the impact of this modification was correlated with the indoor performance of an OPV device with the PM6:L8-BO photoactive layer. The ABA-treated ZnO ETL exhibited a significant reduction in the work function (from 4.51 to 4.04 eV), surface roughness (from 0.201 to 0.177 nm), and hydrophilicity of an indium-tin-oxide electrode; this aided in selectively extracting charge carriers from the device and minimizing trap-assisted recombination losses. Additionally, the ABA treatment of the ZnO ETL considerably enhanced the electron mobility and recombination resistance. It reduced the trap density, thereby enabling the ZnO/ABA-based device to achieve improved performance. Consequently, the ZnO/ABA-based device exhibited a noteworthy 14.68% higher maximum power output than that of the device without any ZnO surface modification under 1000 lx halogen (HLG) illumination (Pout, max = 354.48 and 309 µA cm−2, respectively). Moreover, under thermal illumination conditions (1000 lx HLG lighting), the ZnO/ABA-based device sustained ~74% of its initial power conversion efficiency over 120 h, significantly higher than its ABA-free equivalent (~55%).