Open-circuit voltage and efficiency improvement of subphthalocyanine-based organic photovoltaic device through deposition rate control

High efficiency and high open-circuit voltage (VOC) ITO/boron subphthalocyanine chloride (SubPc)/C60/bathocuproine/Al organic photovoltaic devices were fabricated in this study. Molecular packing was adjusted by controlling the deposition rate of SubPc, thus influencing the energy level of SubPc, which not only increased the energy level difference from the LUMO level of C60 to the HOMO level of SubPc, but also reduced the energy barrier between the ITO/SubPc interface and diminished the accumulation and recombination of holes in SubPc, resulting in considerable improvement in both the VOC (1.02 V) and fill factor (65.37%) of the device, and a 3.96% final efficiency of the device.

► High VOC SubPc/C60 OPV device was fabricated by controlling SubPc deposition rate.
► Molecular packing influences the energy level and surface morphology of SubPc.
► The device showed high efficiency of 3.96%, with VOC of 1.02 V and FF of 65%.