Synergistic improvements in the performance and stability of inverted planar MAPbI3-based perovskite solar cells incorporating benzylammonium halide salt additives

Hung-Cheng Chen; Jie-Min Lan; Hsiang-Lin Hsu; Chia-Wei Li; Tien-Shou Shieh; Ken-Tsung Wong; Chih-Ping Chen

doi:10.1039/D0QM00983K

Synergistic improvements in the performance and stability of inverted planar MAPbI₃-based perovskite solar cells incorporating benzylammonium halide salt additives†

Hung-Cheng Chen,*^a Jie-Min Lan,^b Hsiang-Lin Hsu,^b Chia-Wei Li,^b Tien-Shou Shieh,^c Ken-Tsung Wong

*^d and Chih-Ping Chen

*^b

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Applied Chemistry, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung 81148, Taiwan
E-mail: hcchen@nuk.edu.tw

^b Department of Materials Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 243, Taiwan
E-mail: cpchen@mail.mcut.edu.tw

^c Material and Chemical Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu 310, Taiwan

^d Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
E-mail: kenwong@ntu.edu.tw

Abstract

In this study, three different benzylammonium halide (Cl, Br, and I) salts were investigated to elucidate their effects as additives on MAPbI₃ perovskite surface morphology, crystal structure, optical properties, and solar cell performance and stability. In particular, the additive benzylammonium chloride (BZACl) has a cationic benzylammonium (BZA) ion as a surface capping ligand and exhibits stronger electronegativity attributed to anionic Cl⁻ ions for suppressing the defect formation of iodine vacancies. The study demonstrated that most effectively reducing the defects and suppressing non-radiative recombination result in a significant increase in the photoluminescence (PL) intensity and lifetime of BZACl-doped MAPbI₃ thin films. By optimizing the concentration of BZACl to about 0.27 mol% relative to MAPbI₃, the corresponding device exhibited a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.8%, with negligible hysteresis (PCE = 20.4% in reverse scan), in comparison with the PCE of 17.8% for the control device with pristine perovskite films. In addition, excellent moisture stability is demonstrated with 90% retainment of the initial efficiency after 30 days of unencapsulated operation under ambient air conditions (∼45% relative humidity). This work highlights the great potential of benzylammonium halide salts as additives for developing high-efficiency and simultaneously stable MAPbI₃-based perovskite solar cells.

This article is part of the themed collection: FOCUS: Recent Progress on Perovskite Solar Cells, 2021-2022

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D0QM00983K
Article type: Research Article
Submitted: 25 Nov 2020
Accepted: 19 Jan 2021
First published: 20 Jan 2021

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Mater. Chem. Front., 2021,5, 3378-3387

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Synergistic improvements in the performance and stability of inverted planar MAPbI₃-based perovskite solar cells incorporating benzylammonium halide salt additives

H. Chen, J. Lan, H. Hsu, C. Li, T. Shieh, K. Wong and C. Chen, Mater. Chem. Front., 2021, 5, 3378 DOI: 10.1039/D0QM00983K

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