TY - JOUR
T1 - Lewis acid-base adduct-type organic hole transport material for high performance and air-stable perovskite solar cells
AU - Reddy, Saripally Sudhaker
AU - Arivunithi, Veera Murugan
AU - Sree, Vijaya Gopalan
AU - Kwon, Haeun
AU - Park, Juyun
AU - Kang, Yong-Cheol
AU - Zhu, Huihui
AU - Noh, Yong Young
AU - Jin, Sung-Ho
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF-2018R1A5A1025594) of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation ( NRF-2018R1A5A1025594 ) of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - Since hole transport materials (HTMs) play a significant role in enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), which are the key factors for their commercialization, an effective design strategy is necessary for the potential HTMs in the current emerging field of PSCs. Here, we present a new class of HTM with pyridine as a central core with an extended π-conjugated molecular structure with electron-donating blocks. We have systematically investigated its photophysical, thermal, electrochemical, and charge transport properties and found that 4,4′-(5,5′-(pyridine-2,6-diylbis(4,1-phenylene))bis(thiophene-5,2-diyl))bis(N,N-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)aniline) (PyThTPA) is a potential HTM candidate for making PSCs. The PyThTPA HTM-based PSC attained an average PCE of 16.57% with outstanding long-term durability of over 720 hrs with minimal reduction of its initial PCE and negligible hysteresis. This PSC performance was 34% higher than that of the state-of-the-art HTM, Spiro-OMeTAD with tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF). We speculate that the Lewis acid-base adduct (LABA) formation of pyridine in the HTM and BCF interacted with methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ), resulting in the MAPbI 3 /HTM interface becoming more selective for holes. This also enhanced the film uniformity and afforded a smoother morphology with improved hydrophobicity that further increased the long-term durability. Furthermore, the mobility and conductivity were increased for PyThTPA with BCF. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of pyridine being incorporated into the HTM with continuous π-conjugation and with a high performance of nearly 17%. Overall, we believe that this approach will be an effective design strategy capable of enhancing the performance of PSCs with less hysteresis and improved long-term durability.
AB - Since hole transport materials (HTMs) play a significant role in enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), which are the key factors for their commercialization, an effective design strategy is necessary for the potential HTMs in the current emerging field of PSCs. Here, we present a new class of HTM with pyridine as a central core with an extended π-conjugated molecular structure with electron-donating blocks. We have systematically investigated its photophysical, thermal, electrochemical, and charge transport properties and found that 4,4′-(5,5′-(pyridine-2,6-diylbis(4,1-phenylene))bis(thiophene-5,2-diyl))bis(N,N-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)aniline) (PyThTPA) is a potential HTM candidate for making PSCs. The PyThTPA HTM-based PSC attained an average PCE of 16.57% with outstanding long-term durability of over 720 hrs with minimal reduction of its initial PCE and negligible hysteresis. This PSC performance was 34% higher than that of the state-of-the-art HTM, Spiro-OMeTAD with tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF). We speculate that the Lewis acid-base adduct (LABA) formation of pyridine in the HTM and BCF interacted with methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ), resulting in the MAPbI 3 /HTM interface becoming more selective for holes. This also enhanced the film uniformity and afforded a smoother morphology with improved hydrophobicity that further increased the long-term durability. Furthermore, the mobility and conductivity were increased for PyThTPA with BCF. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of pyridine being incorporated into the HTM with continuous π-conjugation and with a high performance of nearly 17%. Overall, we believe that this approach will be an effective design strategy capable of enhancing the performance of PSCs with less hysteresis and improved long-term durability.
KW - Hysteresis-less
KW - Lewis acid-base adduct
KW - Perovskite solar cell
KW - Pyridine-incorporated hole transport material
KW - Stability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060296218&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.01.041
DO - 10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.01.041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060296218
SN - 2211-2855
VL - 58
SP - 284
EP - 292
JO - Nano Energy
JF - Nano Energy
ER -