Asymmetrically Substituted 10H,10'H-9,9'-Spirobi[acridine] Derivatives as Hole-Transporting Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells

Jianxing Xia; Yi Zhang; Marco Cavazzini; Simonetta Orlandi; Bin Ding; Hiroyuki Kanda; Nadja Klipfel; Xiao-Xin Gao; Qurat Ul Ain; Vygintas Jankauskas; Kasparas Rakstys; Ruiyuan Hu; Zeliang Qiu; Abdullah M Asiri; Hobeom Kim; Paul J Dyson; Gianluca Pozzi; Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin

doi:10.1002/anie.202212891

Asymmetrically Substituted 10H,10'H-9,9'-Spirobi[acridine] Derivatives as Hole-Transporting Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2022 Nov 25;61(48):e202212891. doi: 10.1002/anie.202212891. Epub 2022 Oct 25.

Authors

Jianxing Xia¹, Yi Zhang¹, Marco Cavazzini², Simonetta Orlandi², Bin Ding¹, Hiroyuki Kanda¹, Nadja Klipfel¹, Xiao-Xin Gao¹, Qurat Ul Ain¹, Vygintas Jankauskas³, Kasparas Rakstys⁴, Ruiyuan Hu⁵, Zeliang Qiu⁶, Abdullah M Asiri⁷, Hobeom Kim^{1

8}, Paul J Dyson¹, Gianluca Pozzi², Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin^{1

9}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.
² CNR Institute of Chemical Sciences and Technologies "Giulio Natta" (CNR SCITEC), UOS Golgi, via Golgi 19, 20133, Milan, Italy.
³ Institute of Chemical Physics, Vilnius University, Sauletekio al. 3, Vilnius, 10257, Lithuania.
⁴ Department of Organic Chemistry, Kaunas University of Technology, Radvilenu pl. 19, Kaunas, 50254, Lithuania.
⁵ New Energy Technology Engineering Laboratory of Jiangsu Province, School of Science, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (NJUPT), Nanjing, 210023, China.
⁶ College of Materials and Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan 610059, China.
⁷ Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research (CEAMR), King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, 21589, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Present address: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, 61005, Republic of Korea.
⁹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

PMID: 36200274
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202212891

Abstract

Hole-transporting materials (HTMs) based on the 10H, 10'H-9,9'-spirobi [acridine] core (BSA50 and BSA51) were synthesized, and their electronic properties were explored. Experimental and theoretical studies show that the presence of rigid 3,6-dimethoxy-9H-carbazole moieties in BSA 50 brings about improved hole mobility and higher work function compared to bis(4-methoxyphenyl)amine units in BSA51, which increase interfacial hole transportation from perovskite to HTM. As a result, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on BSA50 boost power conversion efficiency (PCE) to 22.65 %, and a PSC module using BSA50 HTM exhibits a PCE of 21.35 % (6.5×7 cm) with a V_oc of 8.761 V and FF of 79.1 %. The unencapsulated PSCs exhibit superior stability to devices employing spiro-OMeTAD, retaining nearly 90 % of their initial efficiency after 1000 h operation output. This work demonstrates the high potential of molecularly engineered spirobi[acridine] derivatives as HTMs as replacements for spiro-OMeTAD.

Keywords: 3,6-Dimethoxy-9H-Carbazole Acridine; Bis(4-Methoxyphenyl)Amine Acridine; Hole Transporting Materials; Perovskite Solar Cells; Perovskite Solar Modules.

Abstract

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