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High-performance FAPbBr3 perovskite solar cells using dual-function bathocuproine interlayer for surface passivation and energy level alignment

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Abstract

Wide-bandgap pure bromide-based hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs), with the advantages of high open-circuit voltage, and superior environmental stability, have potential applications in tandem solar cells and building-integrated photovoltaics. However, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of bromide-based PSCs are relatively low. In this work, a bathocuproine (BCP) interlayer, instead of conventional PCBM, was employed between the FAPbBr3 absorber and electron transport layer (ETL). The resulting energy level difference of FAPbBr3/BCP was much lower compared with that of FAPbBr3/PCBM, which was expected to facilitate the charge transport. More importantly, it was demonstrated that the BCP interlayer had strong passivation on the FAPbBr3 surface through coordination of N and Pb as well as N-H hydrogen bonding. Accordingly, the inverted planar FAPbBr3 PSC possessed a high PCE of 8.02% and Voc of 1.430 V. In addition, the PSCs with a BCP buffer layer exhibited better air stability compared with that with PCBM films. This work provides new insight into the BCP interlayer, which has dual functions as surface passivation and energy level alignment with FAPbBr3 films, paving the way toward realizing high-performance FAPbBr3 perovskite solar cells.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61875209 and 61774160), the Program for Ningbo Municipal Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (Nos. 2015B11002 and 2016B10005), Ningbo Natural Science Foundation (No. 202003N4032), and Ningbo Key Laboratory of Silicon and Organic Thin-Film Optoelectronic Technologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, NingboTech University, Ningbo, 315100, People’s Republic of China

    Lei Qian & Weiyan Wang

  2. Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, China

    Lei Qian, Shen Fu, Shuang Li, Renjie Miao, Xuan Feng, Wenjun Zhang, Weiyan Wang & Weijie Song

  3. Nano Science and Technology Institute, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Lei Qian & Zhengguo Xiao

  4. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering, Changzhou, 213164, People’s Republic of China

    Weijie Song

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  1. Lei Qian
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  2. Shen Fu
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  3. Shuang Li
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Contributions

LQ: conceptualization, validation, investigation, data curation, and writing—original draft; SF: conceptualization and data curation; SL: investigation; RM and XF: data curation and methodology; WZ and ZX: conceptualization and supervision; WW and WS: conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Weiyan Wang or Weijie Song.

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Qian, L., Fu, S., Li, S. et al. High-performance FAPbBr3 perovskite solar cells using dual-function bathocuproine interlayer for surface passivation and energy level alignment. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 18028–18038 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08663-2

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