m-Methoxy Substituents in a Tetraphenylethylene-Based Hole-Transport Material for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

Fei Wu; Jianlin Liu; Gang Wang; Qunliang Song; Linna Zhu

doi:10.1002/chem.201603672

m-Methoxy Substituents in a Tetraphenylethylene-Based Hole-Transport Material for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

Chemistry. 2016 Nov 7;22(46):16636-16641. doi: 10.1002/chem.201603672. Epub 2016 Oct 5.

Authors

Fei Wu¹, Jianlin Liu², Gang Wang², Qunliang Song², Linna Zhu³

Affiliations

¹ Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, and Technologies of Clean Energy, Faculty of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, P.R. China. feiwu610@swu.edu.cn.
² Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, and Technologies of Clean Energy, Faculty of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, P.R. China.
³ Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, and Technologies of Clean Energy, Faculty of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, P.R. China. lnzhu@swu.edu.cn.

PMID: 27706850
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201603672

Abstract

Three tetrapheynlethylene derivatives (N,N-di(4-methoxyphenyl)aminophenyl-substituted tetraphenylethylene; TPE-4DPA) with different methoxy positions (pp-, pm-, and po-) have been synthesized and characterized. The methoxy groups can control the oxidation potential of the materials, and the electronic properties of the derivatives were affected by the position of the methoxy substituents. These compounds were synthesized in a facile and cost-effective way, and were applied as hole-transport materials in perovskite solar cells. The corresponding cell performances were compared with respect to their structure modifications, and it was found that the derivative with m-OMe substituents showed the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.4 %, with a J_sc value of 20.04 mA cm^-2 , a V_oc value of 1.07 V, and a fill factor (FF) value of 0.72, which is higher than the p-OMe and o-OMe substituents. Moreover, the PCE of pm-TPE-4DPA is comparable with that of the state-of-the-art 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N,N'-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9'-spirobifluorene under identical conditions.

Keywords: charge transfer; electrochemistry; methoxy groups; perovskite phases; structure-activity relationships.