Synchronous Interface Modification and Bulk Passivation via a One-Step Cesium Bromide Diffusion Process for Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Mar 3;13(8):10110-10119. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c00066. Epub 2021 Feb 19.

Abstract

Perovskite film modification is one of the most effective methods to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells. The modification should follow its characters of an asymmetric structure and the corresponding charge transportation and extraction. In this work, it is shown that synchronous interface modification and bulk passivation for highly efficient PSCs can be achieved by a one-step cesium bromide (CsBr) diffusion process because it is more suitable for an asymmetric structure. The synchronous interface modification and bulk asymmetric passivation can be better applied to the asymmetric PSC structure and can boost the power conversion efficiency apparently from 19.5 to 22.1%. It is shown that the perovskite crystallization is improved and the charge extraction is also enhanced obviously due to the better band alignment matching. The diffusion of CsBr into the perovskite bulk could form a gradient distribution, which is more applicable to the asymmetric charge transport and extraction. Thus, the CsBr at the interface between the electronic transport layer (ETL) and perovskite, as well as in the perovskite bulk, could suppress charge recombination. All of these factors can improve the JSC and VOC as well as the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the PSCs. The results point out that the studied method is a simple and efficient way to fabricate high-performance PSCs by interface modification and bulk asymmetric passivation in a single step.

Keywords: asymmetric structure; bulk passivation; cesium bromide diffusion; interface modification; perovskite solar cell.