3-Thiophenemalonic Acid Additive Enhanced Performance in Perovskite Solar Cells

Samuel Abicho; Bekele Hailegnaw; Felix Mayr; Munise Cobet; Cigdem Yumusak; Teshome Abute Lelisho; Teketel Yohannes; Martin Kaltenbrunner; Niyazi Serdar Sariciftci; Markus Clark Scharber; Getachew Adam Workneh

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c07592

3-Thiophenemalonic Acid Additive Enhanced Performance in Perovskite Solar Cells

ACS Omega. 2024 Jan 4;9(2):2674-2686. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c07592. eCollection 2024 Jan 16.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Industrial Chemistry, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, P.O. Box 16417 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
² Sustainable Energy Center of Excellence, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, P.O. Box 16417 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
³ Linz Institute for Organic Solar Cells (LIOS)/Institute of Physical Chemistry, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Hawassa University, P.O. Box 05 Hawassa, Ethiopia.
⁵ Division of Soft Matter Physics and LIT Soft Materials Lab, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Altenberger Str. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Abstract

The development of ambient-air-processable organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (OIHPSCs) is a challenge necessary for the transfer of laboratory-scale technology to large-scale and low-cost manufacturing of such devices. Different approaches like additives, antisolvents, composition engineering, and different deposition techniques have been employed to improve the morphology of the perovskite films. Additives that can form Lewis acid-base adducts are known to minimize extrinsic impacts that trigger defects in ambient air. In this work, we used the 3-thiophenemalonic acid (3-TMA) additive, which possesses thiol and carboxyl functional groups, to convert PbI₂, PbCl₂, and CH₃NH₃I to CH₃NH₃PbI₃ completely. This strategy is effective in regulating the kinetics of crystallization and improving the crystallinity of the light-absorbing layer under high relative humidity (RH) conditions (30-50%). As a result, the 3-TMA additive increases the yield of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 14.9 to 16.5% and its stability under the maximum power point. Finally, we found that the results of this work are highly relevant and provide additional inputs to the ongoing research progress related to additive engineering as one of the efficient strategies to reduce parasitic recombination and enhance the stability of inverted OIHPSCs in ambient environment processing.