Enhancing charge transport in an organic photoactive layer via vertical component engineering for efficient perovskite/organic integrated solar cells

Reducing Interfacial Losses in Solution-Processed Integrated Perovskite-Organic Solar Cells

Low bandgap organic semiconductors have been widely employed to broaden the light response range to utilize much more photons in the inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the serious charge recombination at the heterointerface contact between perovskite and organic semiconductors usually leads to large energy loss and limits the device performance. In this work, a titanium chelate, bis(2,4-pentanedionato) titanium(IV) oxide (C10H14O5Ti), was directly used as an interlayer between the perovskite layer and organic bulk heterojunction layer for the first time. Impressively, it was found that C10H14O5Ti can not only increase the surface potential of perovskite films but also show a positive passivation effect toward the perovskite film surface. Drawing from the above function, a smoother perovskite active layer with a higher work function was realized upon the use of C10H14O5Ti. As a result, the C10H14O5Ti-modified integrated devices show lower interfacial loss and obtain the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 20.91% with a high voltage of 1.15 V. The research offers a promising strategy to minimize the interfacial loss for the preparation of high-performance perovskite solar cells.

Photoswitching/back-switching assessment of biobased cellulose acetate/azobenzene handleable films under visible-light LED irradiation

The light-induced processes performed by photofunctional polymer films are crucial aspects of developing integrated energy storage devices properly. Herein, we report the preparation, characterization, and study of the optical properties of a series of biobased cellulose acetate/azobenzene (CA/Az1) handleable films at different compositions. The photoswitching/back-switching behavior of the samples was investigated using varied LED irradiation sources. Additionally, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was deposited onto cellulose acetate/azobenzene films to study the back-switching process's effect and nature in the fabricated films. Interestingly, the melting enthalpies of PEG before and after being irradiated with blue LED light were 2.5 mJ and 0.8 mJ, respectively. Conveniently, FTIR and UV-visible spectroscopy, thermogravimetry (TGA), contact angle, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized light microscopy (PLM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used for the characterization of the sample films. Complementarily, theoretical electronic calculations provided a consistent approach to the energetic change in the dihedral angles and non-covalent interaction for the trans and cis isomer in the presence of cellulose acetate monomer. The results of this study revealed that CA/Az1 films are viable photoactive materials displaying handleability attributes with potential uses in harvesting, converting, and storing light energy.

Constructing D-π-A Type Polymers as Dopant-Free Hole Transport Materials for High-Performance CsPbI2Br Perovskite Solar Cells

Hole-transporting materials (HTMs) play a major role in efficient and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs), especially for CsPbI2Br inorganic PSC. Among them, dopant-free conjugated polymers attract more attention because of the advantages of high hole mobility and high stability. However, the relationship between the polymer structure and the photovoltaic performance is rarely investigated. In this work, we choose three similar D-π-A-type polymers, where the D unit and π-bridge are fixed into benzodithiophene and thiophene, respectively. By changing the A units from classic benzodithiophene-4,8-dione and benzotriazole to quinoxaline, three polymers PBDB-T, J52, and PE61 are utilized as dopant-free HTMs for CsPbI2Br PSCs. The energy levels, hole mobility, and molecular stacking of the three HTMs, as well as charge transfer between CsPbI2Br/HTMs, are fully investigated. Finally, the device based on PE61 HTM obtains the champion power conversion efficiency of 16.72%, obviously higher than PBDB-T (15.13%) and J52 (15.52%). In addition, the device based on PE61 HTM displays the best long-term stability. Those results demonstrate that quinoxaline is also an effective A unit to construct D-π-A-type polymers as HTMs and improve the photovoltaic performance of PSCs.

Double Cascading Charge Transfer at Integrated Perovskite/Organic Bulk Heterojunctions for Extended Near-Infrared Photoresponse and Enhanced Photocurrent

Nowadays, nearly 48.7% near-infrared (NIR) irradiation (>800 nm) of the full solar spectrum has actually not been fully utilized since the state-of-the-art perovskite film usually can only absorb the most UV-vis sunlight radiation. Herein, high efficiency integrated Cs_0.15 FA_0.85 PbI₃ perovskite/organic bulk (PC₆₁ BM:D18:Y6) heterojunction solar cells with enhanced low energy photon harvest until 931 nm and a high maintained open circuit voltage of 1.04 V is successfully obtained. In particular, the favorable double cascading charge transfer paths pave an interesting possibility to spatially separate electrons upon visible light excitation and holes upon NIR photon absorption simultaneously at interfaces, significantly suppressing non-radiative bimolecular recombination and reaching the photocurrent density as high as 27.48 mA cm^-2 and power conversion efficiency of 20.31%. Besides, the strong hydrophobicity of the ternary organic film has effectively prevented ambient humidity penetration and improves the stability of the perovskite in the continuous aging test (humidity > 60%) compared with the control device. This work has opened a significantly new window to improve the NIR light harvest for next generation highly efficient solar cells with full spectrum response.

Facile Method of Solvent-Flushing To Building Component Distribution within Photoactive Layers for High-Performance Organic Solar Cells

Suitable donor and acceptor distribution in the blended photoactive layer benefits the charge transfer and exciton separation to boost the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, we propose a universal solvent-flushing method for building component distribution in photoactive layers based on the different solubilities of the donor and acceptor in acetylacetone (Acac). The donor and acceptor concentration distribution through the photoactive layers is investigated by the time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy, and the surface concentration changes are examined by contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy tests. The charge-transfer properties of OSCs before and after Acac flushing are further investigated by the rectification ratio and light intensity-dependent J_sc and V_oc measurements. For inverted OSCs based on PBDB-TF:IT-4F, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) enhances from 12.87 to 14.05%, and for a PBDB-TF:Y6-based device, the PCE also significantly increases from 15.40 to 16.51% because of greatly enhanced J_sc and FF, benefited from enhanced charge transport and suppressed charge recombination by solvent-flushing. Our findings suggest that solvent-flushing is a simply processed and easily controlled method to achieve vertical component distribution in photoactive layers to boost the performance of OSCs.

Expanding the Light Harvesting of CsPbI2Br to Near Infrared by Integrating with Organic Bulk Heterojunction for Efficient and Stable Solar Cells

All-inorganic perovskite (CsPbX₃, X = Br or I) solar cells demonstrate superior stability, while the power conversion efficiency (PCE) lags behind the organic-inorganic hybrid counterparts mainly due to the limitation of narrow absorption bands. To broaden their absorption spectrum and improve their PCE, all-inorganic perovskite/organic integrated solar cells utilizing CsPbI₂Br as an ultraviolet-visible light absorber and PBDTTT-E-T:IEICO as a near-infrared light absorber are demonstrated in this work. The integrated solar cells exhibit a broadened photoresponse to over 900 nm, attributed to the integration of PBDTTT-E-T:IEICO. The additional absorption enhances the short-circuit current density from 14.78 to 15.98 mA/cm², resulting in greatly improved PCE of 14.03% for integrated solar cells, much higher than that of the control perovskite solar cells (12.53%) and organic solar cells (7.51%). An in-depth understanding of the charge-transfer dynamic process in the CsPbI₂Br/PBDTTT-E-T:IEICO film is comprehensively analyzed by photoinduced transient absorption spectroscopy. Furthermore, the air stability and thermal stability of the integrated solar cells are greatly enhanced. For unencapsulated integrated solar cells, the PCE still preserves 95% of its initial value after aging for 300 h in an ambient environment and retains about 90% of its original value even after aging at 85 °C for 180 h in nitrogen.

Mitigating Measurement Artifacts in TOF-SIMS Analysis of Perovskite Solar Cells

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is one of the few techniques that can specifically distinguish between organic cations such as methylammonium and formamidinium. Distinguishing between these two species can lead to specific insight into the origins and evolution of compositional inhomogeneity and chemical gradients in halide perovskite solar cells, which appears to be a key to advancing the technology. TOF-SIMS can obtain chemical information from hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) in up to three dimensions, while not simply splitting the organic components into their molecular constituents (C, H, and N for both methylammonium and formamidinium), unlike other characterization methods. Here, we report on the apparently ubiquitous A-site organic cation gradient measured when doing TOF-SIMS depth-profiling of PSC films. Using thermomechanical methods to cleave perovskite samples at the buried glass/transparent conducting oxide interface enables depth profiling in a reverse direction from normal depth profiling (backside depth profiling). When comparing the backside depth profiles to the traditional front side profiled devices, an identical slight gradient in the A-site organic cation signal is observed in each case. This indicates that the apparent A-site cation gradient is a measurement artifact due to beam damage from the primary ion beam causing a continually decreasing ion yield for secondary ions of methylammonium and formamidinium. This is due to subsurface implantation and bond breaking from the 30 keV bismuth primary ion beam impact when profiling with too high of a data density. Here, we show that the beam-generated artifact associated with this damage can mostly be mitigated by altering the measurement conditions. We also report on a new method of depth profiling applied to PSC films that enables enhanced sensitivity to halide ions in positive measurement polarity, which can eliminate the need for a second measurement in negative polarity in most cases.