Ternary Organic Solar Cell

Precise Energy-Level Alignment

Achieves fully unified HOMO levels across the ternary blend via synchronized interface potential compensation, reconciling efficient charge generation with maximized photovoltage.

Gao, Zhen · Li, Weidong · Liu, Heng · Zhang, Qilun · Liu, Tong · Li, Haiyan · Liu, Xianjie · Yu, Liangmin · Bao, Xichang · Xu, Xiaofeng · Ding, Liming · McCulloch, Iain · Lu, Xinhui · Fahlman, Mats · Wang, Chuanfei

Small 2026

Advantages

Eliminates donor HOMO mismatch

Synchronized contact-induced potential steps at the two donor/acceptor interfaces precisely offset intrinsic HOMO offsets, yielding a fully unified HOMO level and eliminating the need to screen donors with matched energy levels.

Charge generation without voltage loss

The unified HOMO landscape reconciles efficient charge generation with a maximized photovoltaic gap, overcoming the traditional trade-off between them.

Direct interfacial level characterization

The monolayer-by-monolayer Langmuir-Schaefer method combined with photoelectron spectroscopy enables direct characterization of energy-level alignment at each donor/acceptor interface in ternary blends, avoiding reliance on the idealized vacuum-level assumption or bulk film measurements.

Applications

• Organic Solar Cells：Provides energetic design rules for high-performance ternary active layers
• Perovskite/Organic Tandem Cells：As a subcell in tandem devices, unified HOMO levels boost voltage while maintaining charge generation
• Flexible Photovoltaics：Solution-processable ternary blend enables flexible substrate compatibility
• Wearable Energy Harvesting：Efficient, voltage-maximized active layer suits low-light wearable conditions