Incorporating 4-tert-Butylpyridine in an Antisolvent: A Facile Approach to Obtain Highly Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Ya-Han Wu; Xiao-Qiang Shi; Xi-Hong Ding; Ying-Ke Ren; Tasawar Hayat; Ahmed Alsaedi; Yong Ding; Pan Xu; Song-Yuan Dai

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b16912

Incorporating 4-tert-Butylpyridine in an Antisolvent: A Facile Approach to Obtain Highly Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Jan 31;10(4):3602-3608. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b16912. Epub 2018 Jan 17.

Authors

Ya-Han Wu¹, Xiao-Qiang Shi¹, Xi-Hong Ding¹, Ying-Ke Ren¹, Tasawar Hayat^{2

3}, Ahmed Alsaedi², Yong Ding¹, Pan Xu⁴, Song-Yuan Dai^{1

4

2}

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Novel Thin-Film Solar Cells, North China Electric Power University , Beijing 102206, China.
² NAAM Research Group, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University , Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Mathematics, Quaid-I-Azam University , Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic and Energy Conservation Materials, Institute of Applied Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Hefei 230031, China.

PMID: 29313326
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b16912

Abstract

The synthesis and growth of CH₃NH₃PbI₃ films with controlled nucleation is a key issue for the high efficiency and stability of solar cells. Here, 4-tert-butylpyridine (tBP) was introduced into a CH₃NH₃PbI₃ antisolvent to obtain high quality perovskite layers. In situ optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction patterns were used to prove that tBP significantly suppressed perovskite nucleation by forming an intermediate phase. In addition, a gradient perovskite structure was obtained by this method, which greatly improved the efficiency and stability of perovskites. An effective power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.41% was achieved via the tBP treatment, and the high-efficiency device could maintain over 89% of the initial PCE after 30 days at room temperature.

Keywords: 4-tert-butylpyridine; antisolvent; gradient structure; perovskite solar cells; suppressed nucleation.