Tailoring Functional Terminals on Solution-Processable Fullerene Electron Transporting Materials for High Performance Perovskite Solar Cells

Fu Liu; Zhou Xing; Ya Ren; Rong-Jiao Huang; Piao-Yang Xu; Fang-Fang Xie; Shu-Hui Li; Xinxian Zhong

doi:10.3390/nano12071046

Tailoring Functional Terminals on Solution-Processable Fullerene Electron Transporting Materials for High Performance Perovskite Solar Cells

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Mar 23;12(7):1046. doi: 10.3390/nano12071046.

Authors

Fu Liu¹, Zhou Xing², Ya Ren¹, Rong-Jiao Huang¹, Piao-Yang Xu³, Fang-Fang Xie³, Shu-Hui Li¹, Xinxian Zhong¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Medicinal Resources, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nano-Micro Materials Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.

Abstract

Widely known as an excellent electron transporting material (ETM), pristine fullerene C₆₀ plays a critical role in improving the photovoltaic performance of inverted structure perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the imperfect perovskite/C₆₀ interface significantly limits the promotion of device performance and stability due to the weak coordination interactions between bare carbon cages and perovskite. Here, we designed and synthesized three functionalized fulleropyrrolidine ETMs (abbreviated as CEP, CEPE, and CECB), each of which was modified with the same primary terminal (cyanoethyl) and various secondary terminals (phenyl, phenethyl, and chlorobutyl). The resulting CECB-based PSC has a power conversion efficiency (PCE) over 19% and exceptional photo-stability over 1800 h. This work provides significant insight into the targeted terminal design of novel fullerene ETMs for efficient and stable PSCs.

Keywords: electron transporting material; fullerene; perovskite solar cell; stability.