Identifying the functional groups effect on passivating perovskite solar cells

Jiangsheng Xie; Keyou Yan; Houyu Zhu; Guixia Li; Han Wang; Hepeng Zhu; Pengjie Hang; Shenghe Zhao; Wenyue Guo; Daiqi Ye; Lei Shao; Xin Guan; To Ngai; Xuegong Yu; Jianbin Xu

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2020.05.031

Identifying the functional groups effect on passivating perovskite solar cells

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2020 Oct 30;65(20):1726-1734. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.05.031. Epub 2020 Jun 9.

Authors

Jiangsheng Xie¹, Keyou Yan², Houyu Zhu³, Guixia Li⁴, Han Wang⁵, Hepeng Zhu⁶, Pengjie Hang⁷, Shenghe Zhao⁵, Wenyue Guo³, Daiqi Ye⁶, Lei Shao⁸, Xin Guan⁹, To Ngai⁹, Xuegong Yu⁷, Jianbin Xu¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China; Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China; School of Materials, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
² School of Environment and Energy, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, National Engineering Laboratory for VOCs Pollution Control Technology and Equipment, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Wastes Pollution Control and Recycling, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China. Electronic address: kyyan@scut.edu.cn.
³ College of Material Science and Technology, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, China.
⁴ College of Science and Information, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China.
⁵ Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
⁶ School of Environment and Energy, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, National Engineering Laboratory for VOCs Pollution Control Technology and Equipment, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Wastes Pollution Control and Recycling, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science & Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
⁸ Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
¹⁰ Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China. Electronic address: jbxu@ee.cuhk.edu.hk.

PMID: 36659245
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.05.031

Abstract

Many organic molecules with various functional groups have been used to passivate the perovskite surface for improving the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cell (PSCs). However, the intrinsic attributes of the passivation effect based on different chemical bonds are rarely studied. Here, we comparatively investigate the passivation effect among 12 types of functional groups on para-tert-butylbenzene for PSCs and find that the open circuit voltage (V_OC) tends to increase with the chemical bonding strength between perovskite and these passivation additive molecules. Particularly, the para-tert-butylbenzoic acid (tB-COOH), with the extra intermolecular hydrogen bonding, can stabilize the surface passivation of perovskite films exceptionally well through formation of a crystalline interlayer with water-insoluble property and high melting point. As a result, the tB-COOH device achieves a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.46%. More importantly, such devices, which were stored in ambient air with a relative humidity of ≃45%, can retain 88% of their initial performance after a testing period of more than 1 year (10,080 h). This work provides a case study to understand chemical bonding effects on passivation of perovskite.

Keywords: Chemical bonding; Functional groups; Hydrogen bonding; Perovskite solar cell; Surface passivation.