Improved Performance and Stability of Organic Solar Cells by the Incorporation of a Block Copolymer Interfacial Layer

In a proof‐of‐concept study, this work demonstrates that incorporating a specifically designed block copolymer as an interfacial layer between a charge transport layer and the photoactive layer in organic solar cells can enhance the interface between these layers leading to both performance and stability improvements of the device. This is achieved by incorporating a P3HT50‐b‐PSSx block copolymer as an interfacial layer between the hole transporting and photoactive layers, which results in the improvement of the interfacial roughness, energy level alignment, and stability between these layers. Specifically, the incorporation of a 10 nm P3HT50‐b‐PSS16 and a 13 nm P3HT50‐b‐PSS23 interfacial layer results in a 9% and a 12% increase in device efficiency respectively compared to the reference devices. In addition to having a higher initial efficiency, the devices with the block copolymer continue to have a higher normalized efficiency than the control devices after 2200 h of storage, demonstrating that the block copolymer not only improves device efficiency, but crucially, prevents degradation by stabilizing the interface between the hole transporting layer and the photoactive layer. This study proves that appropriately designed and optimized block copolymers can simultaneously stabilize and improve the efficiency of organic solar cells. A block copolymer is incorporated between the hole transporting layer (HTL) and the photo‐active layer (PAL) of an organic solar cell resulting in the improved stability and efficiency of the device. This is due to the block copolymer preventing long‐term reaction mechanisms between the PAL and the HTL and providing a more energetically favourable energy level for hole transport.