Efficient and Robust Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Nanofibrillar Electron Transport Layer via Seed‐Initiated Epitaxial Growth

In organic solar cells (OSCs), the morphology of charge transport layers (CTLs) is as critical as that of the active layer, directly governing charge transport and collection efficiency as well as overall device performance. However, current CTL design predominantly focuses on molecular structure engineering, while systematic morphological control of CTLs remains largely underexplored. Herein, we report a seed-initiated epitaxial growth strategy to construct well-ordered fibrillar electron transport layers (ETLs) with tunable fiber lengths and narrow dispersity. This nanofiber-textured ETL provides dedicated pathways for efficient electron transport and extraction, while its enlarged contact area strengthens interlayer adhesion, improving both interfacial charge transport and mechanical integrity. Using this ETL, power conversion efficiencies of 20.6% in rigid binary OSCs and 19.1% in flexible ones are achieved. The nanofibrillar ETL also exhibits broad active layer compatibility, excellent thickness tolerance, and outstanding mechanical stability. This work provides new insights into ETL morphological engineering as a strategy to overcome interfacial bottlenecks, unlocking significant efficiency gains in OSCs.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Published
2026-10-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.7455224
Primary Topic
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Efficient and Robust Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Nanofibrillar Electron Transport Layer via Seed‐Initiated Epitaxial Growth

Jiali Weng, Yanhou Geng, Zheng Tang, Cong Shan et al.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
article

Efficient and Robust Organic Solar Cells Enabled by Nanofibrillar Electron Transport Layer via Seed‐Initiated Epitaxial Growth

Jiali Weng, Yanhou Geng, Zheng Tang, Cong Shan, Baoze Liu, Huibin Qiu, Yanjie Sun, Hui Huang, Jikai Lv, Jiarui Wang, Yanan Wei, Zhengqi Liu, Lei Yang
article en

Abstract

In organic solar cells (OSCs), the morphology of charge transport layers (CTLs) is as critical as that of the active layer, directly governing charge transport and collection efficiency as well as overall device performance. However, current CTL design predominantly focuses on molecular structure engineering, while systematic morphological control of CTLs remains largely underexplored. Herein, we report a seed-initiated epitaxial growth strategy to construct well-ordered fibrillar electron transport layers (ETLs) with tunable fiber lengths and narrow dispersity. This nanofiber-textured ETL provides dedicated pathways for efficient electron transport and extraction, while its enlarged contact area strengthens interlayer adhesion, improving both interfacial charge transport and mechanical integrity. Using this ETL, power conversion efficiencies of 20.6% in rigid binary OSCs and 19.1% in flexible ones are achieved. The nanofibrillar ETL also exhibits broad active layer compatibility, excellent thickness tolerance, and outstanding mechanical stability. This work provides new insights into ETL morphological engineering as a strategy to overcome interfacial bottlenecks, unlocking significant efficiency gains in OSCs.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Tianjin University (CN), City University of Hong Kong (HK), Donghua University (CN), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN), State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Openalex Percentile: Top 22%
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
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