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Dopant-free hole transporting materials with supramolecular interactions and reverse diffusion for efficient and modular p-i-n perovskite solar cells

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Abstract

The rational design of dopant-free organic hole-transporting layer (HTL) materials is still a challenge for realizing high-efficient and stable p-i-n planar perovskite solar cells (pero-SCs). Here, we synthesized two π-conjugated small-molecule HTL materials through tailoring the backbone and conjugated side chain to carefully control molecular conformation. The resultant BDT-TPA-sTh containing a planar fused benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT) core and a conjugated thiophene side chain showed the planar conformation. X-ray crystallography showed a favorable stacking model in solid states under the parallel-displaced π-π and additional S-π weak-bond supramolecular interactions, thus achieving an obviously increased hole mobility without dopants. As an HTL material in p-i-n planar pero-SCs, the marginal solubility of BDT-TPA-sTh enabled inverse diffusion into the perovskite precursor solution for assisting the subsequent perovskite film growth and passivating the uncoordinated Pb2+ ion defects. As a result, the planar p-i-n pero-SCs exhibited a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.5% and enhanced moisture stability. Importantly, the BDT-TPA-sTh HTL material also showed weak thickness-photovoltaic dependence, and the pero-SCs with blade-coated BDT-TPA-sTh as a HTL achieved a 15.30% PCE for the 1-cm2 modularized device. This HTL material design strategy is expected to pave the way toward high-performance, dopant-free and printing large-area planar p-i-n pero-SCs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51922074, 51673138, 51820105003), the Tang Scholar, the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center for New-type Urbanization and Social Governance of Jiangsu Province, National Key Research and Development Program 376 of China (2017YFA0207700), Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX18 2496).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Rongming Xue, Moyao Zhang, Weijie Chen, Yaowen Li & Yongfang Li

  2. State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Deying Luo & Rui Zhu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Yang Michael Yang

  4. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yongfang Li

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  1. Rongming Xue
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  2. Moyao Zhang
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  3. Deying Luo
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  4. Weijie Chen
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Correspondence to Yaowen Li.

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11426_2020_9741_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Molecular Engineering for Efficient and Modular p-i-n Perovskite Solar Cells through Supramolecular Interactions and Reverse Diffusion

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Xue, R., Zhang, M., Luo, D. et al. Dopant-free hole transporting materials with supramolecular interactions and reverse diffusion for efficient and modular p-i-n perovskite solar cells. Sci. China Chem. 63, 987–996 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9741-1

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