Dimethyl sulfoxide: a promising solvent for inorganic CsPbI3 perovskite

Hailiang Wang; Huicong Liu; Zijing Dong; Xueyuan Wei; Weiping Li; Liqun Zhu; Cheng Zhu; Yang Bai; Haining Chen

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2023.01.016

Dimethyl sulfoxide: a promising solvent for inorganic CsPbI₃ perovskite

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2023 Jan 30;68(2):192-202. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.01.016. Epub 2023 Jan 13.

Authors

Hailiang Wang¹, Huicong Liu¹, Zijing Dong¹, Xueyuan Wei², Weiping Li¹, Liqun Zhu¹, Cheng Zhu², Yang Bai², Haining Chen³

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, MIIT Key Laboratory for Low-dimensional Quantum Structure and Devices, Experimental Center of Advanced Materials, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China. Electronic address: chenhaining@buaa.edu.cn.

PMID: 36681587
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.01.016

Abstract

Inorganic CsPbI₃ perovskite is an important photovoltaic material due to its suitable band gap and high chemical stability. However, it is a challenge to grow high-quality CsPbI₃ perovskite because the stability of perovskite phase is low and is sensitive to solvent. So far, most of CsPbI₃ perovskites in high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) were prepared from N,N-dimethylformamide, a highly toxic solvent, and no successful case has been reported for dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), which is environmentally-friendly with considerably higher complexation capability. Herein, we reveal that forming DMSO-based adduct is the main cause for limiting the quality of CsPbI₃ perovskite from DMSO-based solutions, which would inhibit the formation of DMAPbI₃ (DMA = dimethylammonium, (CH₃)₂NH₂⁺) intermediate. Then, by introducing a vacuum treatment, DMSO molecules could be efficiently extracted from the adduct to induce the formation of DMAPbI₃ intermediate. After annealing, the intermediate is transitioned to the CsPbI₃ perovskite with enhanced crystallinity, high orientation, low defect density, and high uniformity. By using the CsPbI₃ perovskite as a light absorber, the PSCs based on carbon electrode (C-PSCs) achieve an efficiency of 16.7%, a new record for inorganic C-PSCs.

Keywords: Carbon based perovskite solar cells; CsPbI(3); DMSO-adduct; Green solvent; Vacuum treatment.