Synergistic Effect of Crystallization Control and Defect Passivation Induced by a Multifunctional Primidone Additive for High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

The ionic nature of organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites endows intrinsic defects at the surface of the polycrystalline films. Simultaneous defect passivation during the growth of perovskite films could inhibit defect formation to a great extent. Herein, the anticonvulsant drug primidone (PRM) is demonstrated as a novel additive to control the crystallization and defect passivation of perovskites. The spectroscopic measurements support theoretical predictions showing the strong interaction between active functional groups and PbI2. An amount of PRM is tuned to obtain the perfect perovskite films with improved grain size and crystallinity than their control counterparts. Efficient PbI antisite defect passivation suppresses the non-radiative recombinations, resulting in higher luminance intensity and significantly longer charge carrier lifetimes. The PRM-modified perovskite solar cells (PSCs) show a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.73%, much higher than that of control PSCs (16.62%). The ambient stability of PRM-modified PSCs is meritoriously increased compared to control PSCs. The PRM-modified PSCs show stability retention of up to 85% of the initial PCE after 1000 h, while control PSCs retain only 25% of the initial PCE after 550 h. The multifunctional defect passivation approach with the PRM additive shows the effective way for the efficiency and stability improvement of PSCs.

Unravelling Structural, Optical, and Band Alignment Properties of Mixed Pb–Sn Metal-Halide Quasi-2D Ruddlesden–Popper Perovskites

“…On the other hand, the peak located at 617 nm is blue-shifted when compared with Sn0 and Sn25. Also, both peaks are broadened in the Sn50 sample. ,,, …”

“…Along with these dominating peaks, the deconvolution of the Pb 4f spectra of Sn0 shows two small peaks at higher energies, which correspond to metallic Pb 0 having B.E. of 143.25 and 138.45 eV, respectively . The appearance of metallic Pb indicates that although we take a stoichiometric ratio in precursors, the excess lead is present in pure quasi-2D perovskite thin films.…”

Additive Engineering for Mixed Lead–Tin Narrow-Band-Gap Perovskite Solar Cells: Recent Advances and Perspectives

“…4−6 Meanwhile, the excessive use of fossil fuels unavoidably produces a large number of greenhouse gases, leading to serious global climate change and environmental pollution. 7,8 In the context of the global era of the joint response to climate change and carbon neutrality, it is highly imperative to seek alternative renewable energies to replace fossil fuels. 9−11 Recently, solar energy has received increasing interests as a result of its abundance, cleanliness, and renewable nature.…”

“…The progress and development of human society are closely related to the exploitation and high-efficiency utilization of energies. Thus, the potential energy forms (carriers) and advanced energy technologies have attracted increasing attention since the scientific, technological, and industrial revolutions. − As the main energy source nowadays, fossil fuels cannot be able to meet the ever-increasing energy demand in the future as a result of the non-renewable nature and low utilization efficiency. − Meanwhile, the excessive use of fossil fuels unavoidably produces a large number of greenhouse gases, leading to serious global climate change and environmental pollution. , In the context of the global era of the joint response to climate change and carbon neutrality, it is highly imperative to seek alternative renewable energies to replace fossil fuels. − Recently, solar energy has received increasing interests as a result of its abundance, cleanliness, and renewable nature . Generally, there are three main routes for the conversion and utilization of solar energy, including direct solar heating, photocatalytic water splitting, and photovoltaics. − Among them, photovoltaics (solar cells) that realize direct conversion from solar energy to electricity have achieved remarkable achievements recently.…”

Minireview and Perspectives of Liquid Crystals in Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Owing to the remarkable optoelectronic properties, perovskites have sparked great research interest for solar cell applications during the past decade. − Since the first PSC was developed in 2009 by Kojima et al, there has been rapid improvement in terms of efficiency, which has been thoroughly documented in the literature. The efficiency of PSCs increased from 3.8 to 25.8% in the last 10 years, whereas other photovoltaic technologies required more than 20 years to achieve comparable efficiencies. − Meanwhile, on the basis of the Shockley–Queisser limit, the potential efficiency of PSC is greater than 30% .…”