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Nano Research 2022, 15(2): 1069-1078 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3600-z
Research Article | Issue | Published: 09 July 2021

Bioinspired molecules design for bilateral synergistic passivation in buried interfaces of planar perovskite solar cells

Show Author's Information Bin Wang1,§,  Junjie Ma1,§,  Zehua Li1,  Gangshu Chen1,  Qiang Gu1,  Shuyao Chen1,  Yiqiang Zhang1,3( ),  Yanlin Song2,  Jingbo Chen1,  Xiaodong Pi3,  Xuegong Yu3,  Deren Yang3
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Institute of Advanced Technology Zhengzhou UniversityZhengzhou 450001 China
Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences100190 Beijing China
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials & School of Materials Science and Engineering Zhejiang UniversityHangzhou 310027 China

§ Bin Wang and Junjie Ma contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
bioinspired, perovskite solar cells, bilateral passivation, buried interfaces, catechol derivatives
Topics:
Perovskite solar cells
Cite this article:
Wang B, Ma J, Li Z, et al. Bioinspired molecules design for bilateral synergistic passivation in buried interfaces of planar perovskite solar cells. Nano Research, 2022, 15(2): 1069-1078. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3600-z
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Trap-mediated energy loss in the buried interface with non-exposed feature constitutes one of the serious challenges for achieving high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Inspired by the adhesion mechanism of mussels, herein, three catechol derivatives with functional Lewis base groups, namely 3, 4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), 3, 4-Dihydroxyphenethylamine (DA) and 3-(3, 4-Dihydroxyphenyl) propionic acid (DPPA), were strategically designed. These molecules as interfacial linkers are incorporated into the buried interface between perovskite and SnO2 surface, achieving bilateral synergetic passivation effect. The crosslinking can produce secondary bonding with the undercoordinated Pb2+ and Sn4+ defects. The PSCs treated with DOPA exhibited the best performance and operational stability. Upon the DOPA passivation, a stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.5% was demonstrated for the planar PSCs. After 55 days of room-temperature storage, the unencapsulated devices with the DOPA crosslinker could still maintain 85% of their initial performance in air under relative humidity of ≈15%. This work opens up a new strategy for passivating the buried interfaces of perovskite photovoltaics and also provides important insights into designing defect passivation agents for other perovskite optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, and lasers.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Bioinspired molecules design for bilateral synergistic passivation in buried interfaces of planar perovskite solar cells

Show Author's information Bin Wang1,§, Junjie Ma1,§, Zehua Li1, Gangshu Chen1, Qiang Gu1, Shuyao Chen1, Yiqiang Zhang1,3( ), Yanlin Song2, Jingbo Chen1, Xiaodong Pi3, Xuegong Yu3, Deren Yang3
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Institute of Advanced Technology Zhengzhou UniversityZhengzhou 450001 China
Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences100190 Beijing China
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials & School of Materials Science and Engineering Zhejiang UniversityHangzhou 310027 China

§ Bin Wang and Junjie Ma contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Trap-mediated energy loss in the buried interface with non-exposed feature constitutes one of the serious challenges for achieving high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Inspired by the adhesion mechanism of mussels, herein, three catechol derivatives with functional Lewis base groups, namely 3, 4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), 3, 4-Dihydroxyphenethylamine (DA) and 3-(3, 4-Dihydroxyphenyl) propionic acid (DPPA), were strategically designed. These molecules as interfacial linkers are incorporated into the buried interface between perovskite and SnO2 surface, achieving bilateral synergetic passivation effect. The crosslinking can produce secondary bonding with the undercoordinated Pb2+ and Sn4+ defects. The PSCs treated with DOPA exhibited the best performance and operational stability. Upon the DOPA passivation, a stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.5% was demonstrated for the planar PSCs. After 55 days of room-temperature storage, the unencapsulated devices with the DOPA crosslinker could still maintain 85% of their initial performance in air under relative humidity of ≈15%. This work opens up a new strategy for passivating the buried interfaces of perovskite photovoltaics and also provides important insights into designing defect passivation agents for other perovskite optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, and lasers.

Keywords: bioinspired, perovskite solar cells, bilateral passivation, buried interfaces, catechol derivatives

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 March 2021
Revised: 29 April 2021
Accepted: 19 May 2021
Published: 09 July 2021
Issue date: February 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the financial support from the National Key R & D Program of China (No. 2018YFA0208501), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51803217, 51773206, 91963212, and 51961145102 [BRICS project]), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (Nos. BNLMS-CXXM-202005 and 2019BMS20003), K. C. Wong Education Foundation, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS- CXXM-202005), Key R & D and Promotion Project of Henan Province (No. 192102210032), Open Project of State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials (No. SKL2019-10), and Outstanding Young Talent Research Fund of Zhengzhou University. The authors also thank the Advanced Analysis & Computation Center at Zhengzhou University for materials and device characterization support. The authors also thank Prof. Bin Zhang in School of Materials Science and Engineering at Zhengzhou University for the materials characterization and analysis.

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