Increasing open circuit voltage by adjusting work function of hole-transporting materials in perovskite solar cells

A series of conductive polymers, i.e., poly(3-methylthiophene) (PMT), poly(thiophene) (PT), poly(3-bromothiophene) (PBT) and poly(3-chlorothiophene) (PCT), were prepared via the electrochemical polymerization process. Subsequently, their application as hole-transporting materials (HTMs) in CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite solar cells was explored. It was found that rationally increasing the work function of HTMs proves beneficial in improving the open circuit voltage (V_oc) of the devices with an ITO/conductive-polymer/CH₃NH₃PbI₃/C₆₀/BCP/Ag structure. In addition, the higher-V_oc devices with a higher-work-function HTM exhibited higher recombination resistances. The highest open circuit voltage of 1.04 V was obtained from devices with PCT, with a work function of–5.4 eV, as the hole-transporting layer. Its power conversion efficiency attained a value of approximately 16.5%, with a high fill factor of 0.764, an appreciable open voltage of 1.01 V and a short circuit current density of 21.4 mA·cm^–2. This simple, controllable and low-cost manner of preparing HTMs will be beneficial to the production of large-area perovskite solar cells with a hole-transporting layer.