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Efficient and stable perovskite solar cells by build-in π-columns and ionic interfaces in covalent organic frameworks

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Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted much attention due to their rapidly increased power conversion efficiencies, however, their inherent poor long-term stability hinders their commercialization. The degradation of PSCs first comes from the degradation of hole transport materials (HTMs). Here, we report the construction of periodic π-columnar arrays and ionic interfaces over the skeletons by introducing cationic covalent organic frameworks (C-COFs) to the HTM. Periodic π-columnar arrays can optimize the charge transport ability and energy levels of the hole transport layer and suppress the degradation of HTM, and ionic interfaces over the skeletons can produce stronger electric dipole and electrostatic interactions, as well as higher charge densities. The C-COFs were designed and synthesized via Schiff base reaction by using 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol as a neutral knot and dimidium bromide as cationic linker. The neutral COFs (N-COFs) were also synthesized as a reference by using 3,8-diamino-6-phenylphenanthridine as neutral linker. PSCs with cationic COF exhibit the highest efficiency of 23.4% with excellent humidity and thermal stability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest efficiency among the meso-structured PSCs fabricated by a sequential process.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52203359), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. NS2022092), National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFA0705400), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20212008), the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures (Nos. MCMS-I-0421K01 and MCMS-I-0422K01), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. NJ2022002), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52073119 and 21774040), and A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Institute for Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Riming Nie, Xiaokai Chen, Weicun Chu, Zhuhua Zhang & Wanlin Guo

  2. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-749, Republic of Korea

    Zhongping Li

  3. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Si Ma & Xiaoming Liu

  4. Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), 50 UNIST-gil, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea

    Changqing Li

  5. Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (KLoFE), School of Flexible Electronics (Future Technologies) & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing Tech University (Nanjing Tech), Nanjing, 211816, China

    Yonghua Chen

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  1. Riming Nie
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  2. Xiaokai Chen
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Correspondence to Riming Nie, Zhongping Li or Wanlin Guo.

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Nie, R., Chen, X., Li, Z. et al. Efficient and stable perovskite solar cells by build-in π-columns and ionic interfaces in covalent organic frameworks. Nano Res. 16, 9387–9397 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5603-4

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