• Magomedov, A.; Al-Ashouri, A.; Kasparavicius, E.; Strazdaite, S.; Niaura, G.; Jost, M.; Malinauskas, T.; Albrecht, S.; Getautis, V.: Self-Assembled Hole Transporting Monolayer for Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells. Advanced Energy Materials 8 (2018), p. 1801892/1-9

10.1002/aenm.201801892
Open Access Version

Abstract:
The unprecedented emergence of perovskite-based solar cells (PSCs) has been accompanied by an intensive search of suitable materials for charge-selective contacts. For the first time a hole-transporting self-assembled monolayer (SAM) as the dopant-free hole-selective contact in p–i–n PSCs is used and a power conversion efficiency of up to 17.8% with average fill factor close to 80% and undetectable parasitic absorption is demonstrated. SAM formation is achieved by simply immersing the substrate into a solution of a novel mole cule V1036 that binds to the indium tin oxide surface due to its phosphonic anchoring group. The SAM and its modifications are further characterized by Fourier-transform infrared and vibrational sum-frequency generation spectroscopy. In addition, photoelectron spectroscopy in air is used for measuring the ionization potential of the studied SAMs. This novel approach is also suitable for achieving a conformal coverage of large-area and/or tex- tured substrates with minimal material consumption and can potentially be extended to serve as a model system for substrate-based perovskite nucleation and passivation control. Further gains in efficiency can be expected upon SAM optimization by means of molecular and compositional engineering.