Suppressing interfacial recombination with a strong‐interaction surface modulator for efficient inverted perovskite solar cells

Li, B. et al. (2022) Suppressing interfacial recombination with a strong‐interaction surface modulator for efficient inverted perovskite solar cells. Advanced Energy Materials, 12(48), 2202868. (doi: 10.1002/aenm.202202868)

Abstract

Successful manipulation of halide perovskite surfaces is typically achieved via the interactions between modulators and perovskites. Herein, it is demonstrated that a strong-interaction surface modulator is beneficial to reduce interfacial recombination losses in inverted (p-i-n) perovskite solar cells (IPSCs). Two organic ammonium salts are investigated, consisting of 4-hydroxyphenethylammonium iodide and 2-thiopheneethylammonium iodide (2-TEAI). Without thermal annealing, these two modulators can recover the photoluminescence quantum yield of the neat perovskite film in contact with fullerene electron transport layer (ETL). Compared to the hydroxyl-functionalized phenethylammonium moiety, the thienylammonium facilitates the formation of a quasi-2D structure onto the perovskite. Density functional theory and quasi-Fermi level splitting calculations reveal that the 2-TEAI has a stronger interaction with the perovskite surface, contributing to more suppressed non-radiative recombination at the perovskite/ETL interface and improved open-circuit voltage (VOC) of the fabricated IPSCs. As a result, the VOC increases from 1.11 to 1.20 V (based on a perovskite bandgap of 1.63 eV), yielding a power conversion efficiency (PCE) from ≈20% to 21.9% (stabilized PCE of 21.3%, the highest reported PCEs for IPSCs employing poly[N,N′′-bis(4-butylphenyl)-N,N′′-bis(phenyl)benzidine] as the hole transport layer, alongside the enhanced operational and shelf-life stability for unencapsulated devices.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: W.Z. thanks the EPSRC standard research (EP/V027131/1) and the Newton Advanced Fellowship (192097) for financial support. B.L. thanks the China Scholarship Council (CSC, No. 201706020158) for financial support during his PhD career. K.D.G.I.J. and S.R.P.S. thank the European Commission H2020 CORNET program (Grant ID: 760949) and the Equal Opportunities Foundation Hong Kong for financial support. H.L. thanks the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFB1503500), the State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology (201901), and the Fujian Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Functional Materials (FJPFM-201902) for financial support. J.B. thanks the China Scholarship Council (CSC, No. 201808370197) for financial support. T.W. thanks the University of Surrey DCSA3 scholarship. J.D.M. and T.W. acknowledge funding from the EPSRC SPECIFIC IKC (EP/N020863/1). D.G.L. thanks the UK EPSRC for support via research grant EP/S009213/1 (The integration of photovoltaic devices with carbon-fiber composites). The authors thank the company Xenocs for their help and ongoing support with the X-ray scattering instrument based at The University of Sheffield and the EPSRC for funding the purchase of this instrument. K.J. and S.D.S. acknowledge funding from the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, EP/R023980/1 and EP/V027131/1) and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (HYPERION, Grant Agreement Number 756962). S.D.S. acknowledges funding from the Royal Society and Tata Group (UF150033).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sweeney, Professor Stephen
• Authors: Li, B., Deng, J., Smith, J. A., Caprioglio, P., Ji, K., Luo, D., McGettrick, J. D., Jayawardena, K.D.G. I., Kilbride, R. C., Ren, A., Hinder, S., Bi, J., Webb, T., Marko, I., Liu, X., Xiang, Y., Reding, J., Li, H., Du, S., Lidzey, D. G., Stranks, S. D., Watson, T., Sweeney, S., Snaith, H. J., Silva, S. R. P., and Zhang, W.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
• Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 1614-6832
• ISSN (Online): 1614-6840
• Published Online: 30 October 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Advanced Energy Materials 12(48):2202868
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License