A dopant-free polymeric hole selective
contact (HSC) layer is ubiquitous
for stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the intrinsic nonwetting
nature of the polymeric HSC impedes the uniform spreading of the perovskite
precursor solution, generating a terrible buried interface. Here,
we dexterously tackle this dilemma from the perspective of dispersive
and polar component surface energies of the HSC layer. A novel triarylamine-based
HSC material, poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4-dimethoxyphenyl)amine] (2MeO-PTAA),
was designed by introducing the polar methoxy groups to the para and
ortho positions of the dangling benzene. These nonsymmetrically substituted
electron-donating methoxy groups enhanced the polar components of
surface energy, allowing more tight interfacial contact between the
HSC layer and perovskite and facilitating hole extraction. When utilized
as the dopant-free HSC layer in inverted PSCs, the 2MeO-PTAA-based
device with CH3NH3PbI3 as the absorber
exhibited an encouraging power conversion efficiency of 20.23% and
a high fill factor of 84.31% with negligible hysteresis. Finally,
a revised detailed balance model was used to verify the drastically
lessened surface defect-induced recombination loss and shunt resistance
loss in 2MeO-PTAA-based devices. This work demonstrates a facile and
efficient way to modulate the buried interface and shed light on the
direction to further improve the photovoltaic performance of inverted
PSCs with other types of perovskites.
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