Pyrene Core-based Dopant-free Hole Transporting Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells: A Theoretical Design and Experimental Verification

Abstract

Hole transport materials (HTMs) are an indispensable part of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and the role of HTMs in improving the performance of PSCs is worth highlighting. In this work, an efficient triphenylamine-based HTM (HY4) is constructed by introducing a fused aromatic core. Theoretical calculated results reveal that the introduced pyrene core in HY4 with a better planarity than the parental HTM (H101) is conducive to promote the intermolecular π−π stacking and reduce the reorganization energy in the hole transferring process. Experimental characterization further confirms that HY4 exhibits matched energy levels, high hole mobility, smooth film morphology, and extraordinary hole extraction ability. Therefore, dopant-free HY4-based PSC devices can achieve a higher power conversion efficiency of 16.62% than a dopant-free H101-based device (14.92%). This work demonstrates that incorporating a fused aromatic core in HTMs is a promising strategy to improve device performance.

Investigating the Fabrication of Perovskite Solar Cells by Ultrasonic Spray Coating: A Design of Experiments Approach

“…14,15 Being a relatively newer material in photovoltaic application, perovskite fabrication is often studied by trial-and-error approaches, with DoE analyses focusing on understanding the properties of perovskite crystals, 16 instead of their application in thin-film photovoltaics�or focusing on the hole-transport layer (HTL) of such devices. 17 A similar observation can be made for ultrasonic spray coating as a deposition method, which is often optimized by trial and error, with most reporting being limited to the experimental section of articles describing only the bestfound parameters.…”

“…Design of experiments (DoE) is a systematic method that allows the study and optimization of processes by analyzing the relationship between input variables and output responses in a structured manner. This approach has long been used by Silicon-based industry, and more recently had its benefits demonstrated in thin-film photovoltaics research. , Being a relatively newer material in photovoltaic application, perovskite fabrication is often studied by trial-and-error approaches, with DoE analyses focusing on understanding the properties of perovskite crystals, instead of their application in thin-film photovoltaicsor focusing on the hole-transport layer (HTL) of such devices . A similar observation can be made for ultrasonic spray coating as a deposition method, which is often optimized by trial and error, with most reporting being limited to the experimental section of articles describing only the best-found parameters.…”

Quinoidal-type ThBF-based perovskite/HTL interface materials for efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

“…In this paper, two ThBF derivatives, namely ThBF-TPA and ThBF-OMeTPA , were designed by modifying ThBF with four strong electron-donating triphenylamine moieties 16 and synthesized through a facile three-step synthetic route. Compared with ThBF, the target compounds showed much improved solubility in commonly-used organic solvents.…”