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Abstract Interfacial compatibility between the electrode and organic semiconductor plays a critical role in controlling the charge transport and hence efficiency of organic solar cell. Here, we introduce a novel small-molecule zwitterionic electrolyte (S1) combined with ZnO as electron transporting interlayer employed for the inverted PTB7:PC 71 BM bulk heterojunction solar cell. The resulting device with the S1/ZnO stacked interlayer achieves a high PCE of 8.59%, obtaining a 16.2% improvement over the control device performance of 7.4% without the S1 attributed to the significant increased short-circuit current density and fill factor. The interfacial properties are investigated. It is found that the S1/ZnO interlayer possess an ultralow work function of 3.6 eV, which originates from the interfacial double dipole step induced by the zwitterionic side chain electrostatic realignment at interface. The S1/ZnO interlayer exhibits the excellent charge extraction ability, suppresses the charge recombination loss and decreases the series resistance at the active layer/electrode contact. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • S1 coated ZnO layer is employed as electron transporting layer for inverted organic solar cell. • S1/ZnO stacked interlayer exhibits the excellent charge extraction ability. • ZnO/S1 stacked interlayer has an ultralow work function of 3.6 eV. • The efficiency of the device with the S1/ZnO interlayer constitutes a 16.2% improvement over that of the controlled device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Room temperature flexible heat harvesters based on conducting polymers are ideally suited to cover the energy demands of the modern nomadic society. The optimization of their thermoelectric efficiency is usually sought by tuning the oxidation levels of the conducting polymers, even if such methodology is detrimental to the Seebeck coefficient ( S ) as both the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity ( σ ) are antagonistically related to the carrier concentration. Here we report a concurrent increase of S and σ and we experimentally derive the dependence of Seebeck coefficient on charge carrier mobility for the first time in organic electronics. Through specific control of the conducting polymer synthesis, we enabled the formation of a denser percolation network that facilitated the charge transport and the thermodiffusion of the charge carriers inside the conducting polymer layer, while the material shifted from a Fermi glass towards a semi-metal, as its crystallinity increased. This work sheds light upon the origin of the thermoelectric properties of conducting polymers, but also underlines the importance of enhanced charge carrier mobility for the design of efficient thermoelectric polymers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]