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Improving performance of Cs2AgBiBr6 solar cell through constructing gradient energy level with deep-level hole transport material

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Abstract

The valence band offset between Cs2AgBiBr6 and hole transport layer (HTL) is approximately 1.00 eV, which results in high energy loss and is identified as one of the bottle necks of Cs2AgBiBr6 perovskite solar cell (PSC) for achieving high power conversion efficiency (PCE). To tackle this problem, we propose the optimization of the energy level alignment by designing and synthesizing novel deep-level hole transport materials (HTMs). The sole introduction of deep-level HTMs successfully reduces the valence band offset between Cs2AgBiBr6 and HTL, but induces the increased valence band offset at HTL/Au interface, limiting the PCE improvement. To further solve the problem and improve the PCE, the gradient energy level arrangement is constructed by combining the newly developed deep-level HTM 6,6'-(3-((9,9-dimethyl-9H-fluoren-3-yl)(4-methoxyphenyl)amino)thiophene-2,5-diyl)bis(N-(9,9-dimethyl-9H-fluoren-2-yl)-N,9-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-9H-carbazol-3-amine) (TF) with 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N,N’-di-pmethoxyphenylamine)-9,9-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD). Through optimization, an impressive PCE of 3.50% with remarkably high open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) is achieved, qualifying it among the best pristine Cs2AgBiBr6 PSCs.

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摘要

Cs2AgBiBr6/空穴传输层（HTL）界面处约1.00 eV的能势差导致电荷传输过程中能量损失过大，这被认为是限制Cs2AgBiBr6钙钛矿太阳能电池（PSC）光电率转换效率（PCE）进一步提升的瓶颈之一。为了解决这个难题，本论文提出通过设计与合成新型深能级空穴传输材料（HTM），优化能级排列，以降低界面能量损失。研究发现，单一引入深能级HTM虽然成功地减少了Cs2AgBiBr6和HTL之间的能量损失，但会同时引发HTL/Au界面处能量损失增加。为了进一步解决该问题并提升器件PCE，我们通过将新开发的深能级HTM TF与Spiro-OMeTAD相结合，构建出梯度排列的能级，成功降低了空穴传输界面的电荷复合和能量损失。通过优化，器件最终获得了3.50%的PCE，且具有较高的开路电压（Voc）和填充因子（FF），使其成为基于原始Cs2AgBiBr6的最佳效率之一。

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22179053, 22279046 and 21905119), the Natural Science Excellent Youth Foundation of Jiangsu Provincial (No. BK20220112), the Open Competition Mechanism Project of Carbon Neutrality of Jiangsu Province (No. BE2022026). L. Wang thanks Zhejiang Province Selected Funding for Postdoctoral Research Projects (No. ZJ2021001) for financial support. The authors would like to thank Dr. Yinjuan Chen at Westlake University for HRMS measurements and thank Weiwei Wang from Shiyanjia Lab (www.shiyanjia.com) for UPS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Energy Research, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Zi-Yang Xia, Wei Zhang, Cheng Chen, Hao-Xin Wang, Ya-Wei Miao, Xing-Dong Ding & Ming Cheng

  2. Center of Artificial Photosynthesis for Solar Fuels and Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Westlake University, Hangzhou, 310024, China

    Lin-Qin Wang & Li-Cheng Sun

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  1. Zi-Yang Xia
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Xia, ZY., Zhang, W., Chen, C. et al. Improving performance of Cs2AgBiBr6 solar cell through constructing gradient energy level with deep-level hole transport material. Rare Met. 42, 3004–3012 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-023-02320-1

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