High-Performance and Hysteresis-Free Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Rare-Earth-Doped SnO2 Mesoporous Scaffold

A comprehensive review on the advancements and challenges in perovskite solar cell technology

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as revolutionary technology in the field of photovoltaics, offering a promising avenue for efficient and cost-effective solar energy conversion. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the progress and developments in PSCs, beginning with an introduction to their fundamental properties and significance. Herein, we discuss the various types of PSCs, including lead-based, tin-based, mixed Sn-Pb, germanium-based, and polymer-based PSCs, highlighting their unique attributes and performance metrics. Special emphasis is given to halide double PSCs and their potential in enhancing the stability of PSCs. Charge transport layers and their significance in influencing the overall efficiency of solar cells are discussed in detail. The review also explores the role of tandem solar cells as a solution to overcome the limitations of single-junction solar cells, offering an integrated approach to harness a broader spectrum of sunlight. This review concludes with challenges associated with PSCs and perspective on the future potential of PSCs, emphasizing their role in shaping a sustainable energy landscape. Through this review readers will gain a comprehensive insight into the current state-of-the-art in PSC technology and the avenues for future research and development.

A Novel Organic Phosphonate Additive Induced Stable and Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells with Efficiency over 24% Enabled by Synergetic Crystallization Promotion and Defect Passivation

Defect passivation is crucial to enhancing the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this study, we successfully synthesized a novel organic compound named DPPO, which consists of a double phosphonate group. Subsequently, we incorporated DPPO into a perovskite solution. The presence of a P═O group interacting with undercoordinated Pb2+ yielded a perovskite film of superior crystallinity, greater crystal orientation, and smoother surface. Additionally, the addition of DPPO can passivate defect states and enhance upper layer energy level alignment, which will improve carrier extraction and prevent nonradiative recombination. Consequently, an impressive champion efficiency of 24.24% was achieved with a minimized hysteresis. Furthermore, the DPPO-modified PSCs exhibit enhanced durability when exposed to ambient conditions, maintaining 95% of the initial efficiency for 1920 h at an average relative humidity (RH) of 30%.

SnO2@ZnO nanocomposites doped polyaniline polymer for high performance of HTM-free perovskite solar cells and carbon-based

Herein, at first, green SnO₂@ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized using Calotropis plant extract as an electron transfer material (ETM) to fabricate low-temperature-processed perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Then, the polyaniline (PANI) polymer was applied as an efficient additive to improve perovskite film quality. Under the effects of the small content of PANI additive, the quality of perovskite films is enhanced, which showed higher crystallinity in (110) crystal plane; also, the perovskite grains were found to be enlarged from 342 to 588 nm. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the prepared PSCs with SnO₂@ZnO.PANI nanocomposites electron transfer layer (ETL) increased by 3.12%, compared with the PCE of SnO₂@ZnO nanocomposites. The perovskite devices using SnO₂@ZnO.PANI nanocomposites ETL have shown good stability during 480 h of tests. Furthermore, the optimal PSCs were fabricated by the mp-TiO₂/SnO₂@ZnO.PANI nanocomposites as ETL, which has a power conversion efficiency of 15.45%. We expect that these results will boost the development of low-temperature ETL, which is essential for the commercializing of high-performance, stable, and flexible perovskite solar cells.

Embedding SnO2 Thin Shell Protected Ag Nanowires in SnO2 ETL to Enhance the Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells

The energy level mismatching between SnO₂ and perovskite and the nonradiative recombination at SnO₂-perovskite interface severely degrade the extraction of carriers, reducing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on SnO₂ electron transfer layer (ETL). In the present work, a reinforced SnO₂ ETL was successfully developed by embedding SnO₂ thin shell protected Ag nanowires (Ag/SnO₂ NWs) in traditional planar SnO₂ film, which was proved to not only lower the conduction band of SnO₂ to adjust the energy level matching, but also significantly reduce the interfacial carrier recombination. Moreover, Ag/SnO₂ NWs improved the electrical conductivity of SnO₂ ETL, and effectively promoted carrier transport. Benefiting from the use of Ag/SnO₂ NWs, our newly designed PSC achieved a significantly increased champion PCE of 19.78%, which is 7% higher than the traditional PSC without Ag/SnO₂ NWs embedding, indicating its great application potential in PSCs.

Electrode Engineering in Halide Perovskite Electronics: Plenty of Room at the Interfaces

Contact engineering is a prerequisite for achieving desirable functionality and performance of semiconductor electronics, which is particularly critical for organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskites due to their ionic nature and highly reactive interfaces. Although the interfaces between perovskites and charge-transporting layers have attracted lots of attention due to the photovoltaic and light-emitting diode applications, achieving reliable perovskite/electrode contacts for electronic devices, such as transistors and memories, remains as a bottleneck. Herein, a critical review on the elusive nature of perovskite/electrode interfaces with a focus on the interfacial electrochemistry effects is presented. The basic guidelines of electrode selection are given for establishing non-polarized interfaces and optimal energy level alignment for perovskite materials. Furthermore, state-of-the-art strategies on interface-related electrode engineering are reviewed and discussed, which aim at achieving ohmic transport and eliminating hysteresis in perovskite devices. The role and multiple functionalities of self-assembled monolayers that offer a unique approach toward improving perovskite/electrode contacts are also discussed. The insights on electrode engineering pave the way to advancing stable and reliable perovskite devices in diverse electronic applications.

Alkali Metal Fluoride-Modified Tin Oxide for n-i-p Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

The practical applications of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are limited by further improvement of their stability and performance. Additive engineering and interface engineering are promising medicine to cure this stubborn disease. Herein, an alkali metal fluoride as an additive is introduced into the tin oxide (SnO₂) electron transport layer (ETL). The formation of coordination bonds of F^- ions with the oxygen vacancy of Sn⁴⁺ ions decreases the trap-state density and improves the electron mobility; the hydrogen bond interaction between the F ion and amine group (FA⁺) of perovskite inhibits the diffusion of organic cations and promotes perovskite (PVK) stability. Meanwhile, the alkali metal ions (K⁺, Rb⁺, and Cs⁺) permeated into PVK fill the organic cation vacancies and ameliorate the crystal quality of PVK films. Consequently, a SnO₂-based planar PSC exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.24%, while the PSC modified by CsF achieves a PCE of 22.51%, accompanied by effective enhancement of stability and negligible hysteresis. The research results provide a typical example for low-cost and multifunctional additives in high-performance PSCs.

Efficient and Stable Large-Area Perovskite Solar Cells with Inorganic Perovskite/Carbon Quantum Dot-Graded Heterojunction

This work reports on a compositionally graded heterojunction for photovoltaic application by cooperating fluorine-doped carbon quantum dots (FCQDs in short) into the CsPbI2.5Br0.5 inorganic perovskite layer. Using this CsPbI2.5Br0.5/FCQDs graded heterojunction in conjunction with low-temperature-processed carbon electrode, a power conversion efficiency of 13.53% for 1 cm2 all-inorganic perovskite solar cell can be achieved at AM 1.5G solar irradiation. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the highest efficiency reported for carbon electrode based all-inorganic perovskite solar cells so far, and the first report of 1 cm2 carbon counter electrode based inorganic perovskite solar cell with PCE exceeding 13%. Moreover, the inorganic perovskite/carbon quantum dot graded heterojunction photovoltaics maintained over 90% of their initial efficiency after thermal aging at 85° for 1056 hours. This conception of constructing inorganic perovskite/FCQDs graded heterojunction offers a feasible pathway to develop efficient and stable photovoltaics for scale-up and practical applications.

Advances in Halide Perovskite Memristor from Lead-Based to Lead-Free Materials

Memristors have attracted considerable attention as one of the four basic circuit elements besides resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Especially, the nonvolatile memory devices have become a promising candidate for the new-generation information storage, due to their excellent write, read, and erase rates, in addition to the low-energy consumption, multistate storage, and high scalability. Among them, halide perovskite (HP) memristors have great potential to achieve low-cost practical information storage and computing. However, the usual lead-based HP memristors face serious problems of high toxicity and low stability. To alleviate the above issues, great effort has been devoted to develop lead-free HP memristors. Here, we have summarized and discussed the advances in HP memristors from lead-based to lead-free materials including memristive properties, stability, neural network applications, and memristive mechanism. Finally, the challenges and prospects of lead-free HP memristors have been discussed.

Perovskite-Enhanced Silicon-Nanocrystal Optoelectronic Synaptic Devices for the Simulation of Biased and Correlated Random-Walk Learning

Silicon- (Si-) based optoelectronic synaptic devices mimicking biological synaptic functionalities may be critical to the development of large-scale integrated optoelectronic artificial neural networks. As a type of important Si materials, Si nanocrystals (NCs) have been successfully employed to fabricate optoelectronic synaptic devices. In this work, organometal halide perovskite with excellent optical asborption is employed to improve the performance of optically stimulated Si-NC-based optoelectronic synaptic devices. The improvement is evidenced by the increased optical sensitivity and decreased electrical energy consumption of the devices. It is found that the current simulation of biological synaptic plasticity is essentially enabled by photogating, which is based on the heterojuction between Si NCs and organometal halide perovskite. By using the synaptic plasticity, we have simulated the well-known biased and correlated random-walk (BCRW) learning.

Defect Control Strategy by Bifunctional Thioacetamide at Low Temperature for Highly Efficient Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Titania (TiO₂) has wide applications in the realm of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Because high-temperature processing severely limits the application of flexible and tandem devices, it is significant to develop a high-quality electron-transport layer (ETL) by low-temperature processing. Here, we design a new strategy by introducing a bifunctional molecule (thioacetamide, TAA) in the TiO₂ ETL. During the low-temperature annealing, the N and S atoms in TAA can bond with the Ti atom in the ETL and the Pb atom in the perovskite (PVK) layer, respectively. The formation of coordinate bonds is beneficial to increase the crystallinity and reduce the roughness of TiO₂ ETLs and PVK layers, which effectively passivate the defects. Meanwhile, the energy level matching between the ETL and PVK is optimized. The structure characterization and electrochemical measurement demonstrate the design. Compared with precursor doping, surface spin-coating is a more effective method for introducing TAA into TiO₂. Significantly, the PSC based on the surface spin-coated TAA TiO₂ ETL achieves the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.17%. Nevertheless, the PSC fabricated with the pristine TiO₂ ETL offers a PCE of 19.52% under the same conditions. The results demonstrate a novel method for optimizing the properties of PSCs.

Origin of High Efficiency and Long-Term Stability in Ionic Liquid Perovskite Photovoltaic

Environment-friendly protic amine carboxylic acid ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents is a significant breakthrough with respect to traditional highly coordinating and toxic solvents in achieving efficient and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with a simple one-step air processing and without an antisolvent treatment approach. However, it remains mysterious for the improved efficiency and stability of PSCs without any passivation strategy. Here, we unambiguously demonstrate that the three functions of solvents, additive, and passivation are present for protic amine carboxylic acid ILs. We found that the ILs have the capability to dissolve a series of perovskite precursors, induce oriented crystallization, and chemically passivate the grain boundaries. This is attributed to the unique molecular structure of ILs with carbonyl and amine groups, allowing for strong interaction with perovskite precursors by forming C=O…Pb chelate bonds and N-H…I hydrogen bonds in both solution and film. This finding is generic in nature with extension to a wide range of IL-based perovskite optoelectronics.