Publication by Hanna Pazniak

Here you will find the article by Hanna Pazniak:
"Implementation of 2D materials is one of the promising routes for improving the efficiency and stability of organic solar cells (OSCs). Due to their tunable optical and electronic properties, MXenes, a family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides, have attracted considerable attention and demonstrated their potential for next-generation solar cells. In this work, Ti₃C₂T_x MXene was added into ZnO precursors and applied as a modified composite electron transport layer (ETL) in PM6:N3-based inverted OSCs. The nonhalogenated solvent o-xylene was employed as the active layer solvent for the development of stable, efficient, and eco-friendly OSCs. By optimizing the concentration of Ti₃C₂T_x in the ZnO ETL, the solar cells exhibited power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 14.1 and 13.7% for 0.5 and 2 wt % MXene, respectively, as compared to neat ZnO layer devices with a PCE of 14.9%. Interestingly, the MXene-based PM6:N3 OSC devices showed superior device stability compared to the reference cells. It is demonstrated that the MXene introduced in the composite ZnO-based ETL mitigates the photocatalytic decomposition of the organic active layer on the ZnO surface, as analyzed via optical spectroscopy and hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which appears as a main reason for improved device stability. We thus report on the usage of MXene in green solvent-processed OSCs to enhance the lifetime of solar cells and thus address an important bottleneck in high-performance nonfullerene acceptor solar cells."