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Review
. 2025 Feb 20;10(3):1330-1337.
doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.4c02285. eCollection 2025 Mar 14.

Tin Oxide: The Next Benchmark Transport Material for Organic Solar Cells?

David Garcia Romero  1 , Lorenzo Di Mario  1 , Maria Antonietta Loi  1
Affiliations
Review

Tin Oxide: The Next Benchmark Transport Material for Organic Solar Cells?

David Garcia Romero et al. ACS Energy Lett. .

Abstract

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are one of the most promising emerging photovoltaic technologies due to the rapid increase in efficiency in recent years. While efficiencies over 20% have been reported in laboratory scale devices using the conventional (p-i-n) structure, OSCs with inverted (n-i-p) structures still underperform, reaching values around 18%. Tin oxide (SnO2) has recently emerged as a promising transport layer for OSCs. Yet, some reproducibility challenges shown by the literature have hindered the full adaptation of this electron transport layer (ETL) by the organic solar cell community. This Perspective evaluates the current status of investigation for SnO2 as the transport layer for OSCs, focusing on its integration into state-of-the-art systems and highlighting the challenges toward its implementation. We examine which strategies lead to the most efficient and stable devices using SnO2 and give a critical view of whether this material can soon become the next benchmark electron transport layer for OSCs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Evolution of reported champion PCEs for single-junction organic solar cells with the two types of device structures. The inset shows the ratio of publications with ZnO, SnO2 and other electron transport layers in the 2021–2023 period using “inverted organic solar cells”. Data are from the Web of Science database.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sketch of (a) defect chemistry of SnO2 and (b) main effects on the interface properties in organic solar cells.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Surface modification of SnO2 using molecules with multisite coordination. (a,b) The coordination mechanism of Phen-NaDPO and corresponding XPS showing a drop in the oxygen vacancies. Reproduced with permission from ref (35). Copyright 2023 John Wiley and Sons. (c,d) Coordination mechanism of urea-polyethylenimine and effect of molecule modification on SnO2 work function. Reproduced with permission from ref (37). Copyright 2024 John Wiley and Sons.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Removal of ligand residuals from SnO2 nanoparticles. (a) Schematic of ligand removal. (b) FTIR of pristine and washed SnO2. (c) Effect of ligand removal on device performance. (d) Effect of ligand removal on operational stability. Reproduced from ref (31). Copyright 2023 The Authors. Available under CC-BY 4.0.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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