A ZnO-Ge bilayer was proposed as an electron transport, layer (ETL) in inverted ternary organic solar cells (OSCs). The energy level alignment, surface morphology, optical and electrical properties, and interface charge transfer were investigated to understand the impact of the additional Ge NPs layer. The results indicated that apart from improving the energy level alignment, the Ge NPs layer optimizes the interfacial contact between the active layer and ETL. Moreover, the ZnO-Ge bilayer shows better optical transmittance and perpendicular electrical transport properties compared to that of ZnO NPs layer. Benefit from the enhanced charge transfer from the active layer to ETL, the champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) was significantly increased to 9.15% by introducing the additional Ge layer, which exhibited a 18.4% improvement compared to that of the ZnO-only devices. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of ZnO-Ge bilayer as the ETL for high-performance OSCs. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.