In Situ Ethanolamine ZnO Nanoparticle Passivation for Perovskite Interface Stability and Highly Efficient Solar Cells

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has interesting optoelectronic properties, but suffers from chemical instability when in contact with perovskite interfaces; hence, the perovskite deposited on the top degrades promptly. Surface passivation strategies alleviate this instability issue; however, synthesis to passivate ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in situ has received less attention. Here, a new synthesis at low temperatures with an ethanolamine post treatment has been developed. By using ZnO NPs prepared with ethanolamine and butanol (BuOH), (E-ZnO), the stability of the FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3 (FACsPI)–ZnO interface was achieved, with a photoconversion efficiency of >18%. Impedance spectroscopy demonstrates that the recombination at the interface was reduced in the system with E-ZnO/perovskite compared to common SnO2/perovskite and that the quality of the perovskite on the top is clearly due to the ZnO in situ passivation with ethanolamine. This work extends the use of E-ZnO as an n-type charge extraction layer and demonstrates its feasibility with methylammonium perovskite. Moreover, this study paves the way for other in situ passivation methods with different target molecules, along with new insights regarding the perovskite interface rearrangement when in contact with the modified electron transport layer (ETL).

Buried Interface Passivation: A Key Strategy to Breakthrough the Efficiency of Perovskite Photovoltaics

“…The results show that the buried interface defects are passivated due to the presence of ethanolamine, and the quality of perovskite layer is improved, in the same way, all this leads to improved performance of PSCs. [ 137 ]…”

Properties of Nanogenerator Materials for Energy-Harvesting Application

“…The increase of polarization per unit volume as the diameters of the NWs reduced is responsible for the improvement of the piezoelectric coefficient. By reducing surface defects, the stability and performance of ZnO NWs or NRs could be enhanced by surface treatments and passivation layers [68]. Recently, Rohul et al were able to synthesize triethanolamine (TEA)-stabilized monodisperse ZnO QDs with an average size of 2.4 nm [69].…”

Sn-doped ZnO for efficient and stable quantum dot light-emitting diodes via a microchannel synthesis strategy

“…15 Among the metal oxide ETLs, ZnO nanocrystals (NCs) are the most popular candidates due to their significant electron mobility, ideal band alignment, low synthesis cost and compatibility with alcohol dispersion. [16][17][18][19][20] However, the excessive electron mobility of ZnO NCs can cause imbalance of charge injection in the charge transport layers of a QLED. Meanwhile, ZnO NCs possess abundant lattice and surface defects as well as active surface chemistry, both of which multiply the transfer and quench channels for excitons at the QD/ZnO interface, thus affecting the performance of QLED devices.…”