Effect of different terminal groups of phenyl boronic acid self-assembled monolayers on the photovoltaic performance of organic solar cells

Here, a new series of phenyl boronic acid derivative self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with various functional groups terminated was presented as modification layer for the high performance P3HT:PCBM based organic solar cells (OSCs) with the configuration of ITO/SAM/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM/LiF:Al. The photovoltaic device parameters of non-modified and modified ITO surfaces were compared. The electrical and morphologic characteristics of non-modified and modified ITO surfaces were determined by different techniques. It was obtained that the device performances were improved by using all boronic acid derivatives SAM molecules. The best performance of OSC was observed for NO2-PBA SAM modified device, which yielded a power conversion efficiency of 3.17%. Thanks to improved charge transport properties, serial resistance reduced, whereas shunt resistance improved after boronic acid SAMs modification. As a result, it could be said that the using of these SAMs as novel molecules for interfacial modification is an efficient way to improve the device performance of OSCs. [Display omitted] •A new series of phenyl boronic acid derivative SAMs was introduced to OSCs.•The effect of different terminal groups of SAMs on performance was investigated.•The modified OSCs showed high device performance.•The performance of boronic acid derivative SAMs were comparable with that of other SAM molecules.