Ultrathin and Efficient Organic Photovoltaics with Enhanced Air Stability by Suppression of Zinc Element Diffusion

Ultrathin (with thickness less than 10 µm) organic photovoltaics (OPVs) can be applied to surfaces of irregular shapes to power soft robotics and wearable electronics. In addition to high power conversion efficiency, stability under various environmental stresses is crucial for the application of ultrathin OPVs. In this study, we realize highly air-stable and ultrathin (~3 µm) OPVs that possess high efficiency (15.8%) . Dynamic secondary ion mass spectrometry is used to identify zinc diffusion from the electron transport layer (ZnO) to the photoactive layer; this diffusion results in the degradation of the ultrathin OPVs in air. The suppression of the Zn diffusion by a chelating strategy results in stable ultrathin OPVs that maintain 89.6% of their initial efficiency after storage for 1574 h in air at room temperature under dark conditions and 92.4% of their initial efficiency after annealing for 172 h at 85 °C in air under dark conditions. The lightweight and stable OPVs also possess excellent deformability with 87.3% retention of the initial performance after 5,000 cycles of a compressing–stretching test with 33% compression. These advantageous properties enable the potential application of the OPVs as a portable power source.