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Nano Research 2023, 16(5): 6849-6858 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5403-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 21 January 2023

Reducing surficial and interfacial defects by thiocyanate ionic liquid additive and ammonium formate passivator for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

Show Author's Information Mengfei Zhu§,  Yuren Xia§,  Lina Qin§,  Kaiqiang Zhang,  Junchuan Liang,  Cheng Zhao,  Daocheng Hong,  Minghang Jiang,  Xinmei Song,  Jie Wei,  Pengbo Zhang,  Yuxi Tian,  Zhong Jin( )
State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, MOE Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry, MOE Key Laboratory of High Performance Polymer Materials and Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Organic Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China

§ Mengfei Zhu, Yuren Xia, and Lina Qin contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
pseudo-halide ion liquid additive, non-halide ammonium formate passivator, crystalline and interface engineering, efficiency and stability improvements, organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells
Topics:
Perovskite solar cells
Cite this article:
Zhu M, Xia Y, Qin L, et al. Reducing surficial and interfacial defects by thiocyanate ionic liquid additive and ammonium formate passivator for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. Nano Research, 2023, 16(5): 6849-6858. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5403-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites have attained extensive attention owing to their outstanding photovoltaic performances, but the existence of numerous defects in crystalline perovskites is still a serious constraint for the further development of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In particular, the rapid crystallization guided by anti-solvents leads to plenty of surficial and interfacial defects in perovskite films. Herein, we report the adoption of a pseudo-halide anion based ionic liquid additive, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate (BMIMSCN) for growing ternary cation (CsFAMA, where FA = formamidinium and MA = methylammonium) perovskites with large-scale crystal grains and strong preferential orientation via the enhanced Ostwald ripening. Meanwhile, a novel halide-free passivator, benzylammonium formate (BAFa), was employed as a buffering layer on the perovskite films to suppress surface-dominated charge recombination. As a result, the cooperative effects of BMIMSCN additive and BAFa passivator lead to significant enhancements on fluorescence lifetime (from 79.41 to 201.01 ns), open-circuit voltage (from 1.13 to 1.19 V), and photoelectric conversion efficiency (from 18.90% to 22.33%). Moreover, the BMIMSCN/BAFa-CsFAMA PSCs demonstrated greatly improved stability against moisture and heat. This work suggests a promising strategy to improve the quality of perovskite materials via reducing the surficial and interfacial defects by the synergistic effects of lattice doping and interface engineering.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Reducing surficial and interfacial defects by thiocyanate ionic liquid additive and ammonium formate passivator for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

Show Author's information Mengfei Zhu§, Yuren Xia§, Lina Qin§, Kaiqiang Zhang, Junchuan Liang, Cheng Zhao, Daocheng Hong, Minghang Jiang, Xinmei Song, Jie Wei, Pengbo Zhang, Yuxi Tian, Zhong Jin( )
State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, MOE Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry, MOE Key Laboratory of High Performance Polymer Materials and Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Organic Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China

§ Mengfei Zhu, Yuren Xia, and Lina Qin contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites have attained extensive attention owing to their outstanding photovoltaic performances, but the existence of numerous defects in crystalline perovskites is still a serious constraint for the further development of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In particular, the rapid crystallization guided by anti-solvents leads to plenty of surficial and interfacial defects in perovskite films. Herein, we report the adoption of a pseudo-halide anion based ionic liquid additive, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate (BMIMSCN) for growing ternary cation (CsFAMA, where FA = formamidinium and MA = methylammonium) perovskites with large-scale crystal grains and strong preferential orientation via the enhanced Ostwald ripening. Meanwhile, a novel halide-free passivator, benzylammonium formate (BAFa), was employed as a buffering layer on the perovskite films to suppress surface-dominated charge recombination. As a result, the cooperative effects of BMIMSCN additive and BAFa passivator lead to significant enhancements on fluorescence lifetime (from 79.41 to 201.01 ns), open-circuit voltage (from 1.13 to 1.19 V), and photoelectric conversion efficiency (from 18.90% to 22.33%). Moreover, the BMIMSCN/BAFa-CsFAMA PSCs demonstrated greatly improved stability against moisture and heat. This work suggests a promising strategy to improve the quality of perovskite materials via reducing the surficial and interfacial defects by the synergistic effects of lattice doping and interface engineering.

Keywords: pseudo-halide ion liquid additive, non-halide ammonium formate passivator, crystalline and interface engineering, efficiency and stability improvements, organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 21 October 2022
Revised: 01 December 2022
Accepted: 11 December 2022
Published: 21 January 2023
Issue date: May 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the support from the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFA0208200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22022505, 21872069, and 22109069), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Nos. 020514380266, 020514380272, and 020514380274), the Scientific and Technological Innovation Special Fund for Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality of Jiangsu Province (BK20220008), the Nanjing International Collaboration Research Program (Nos. 202201007 and 2022SX00000955), and the Suzhou Gusu Leading Talent Program of Science and Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Wujiang District (No. ZXL2021273).

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