Orientated crystallization of FA-based perovskite via hydrogen-bonded polymer network for efficient and stable solar cells

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 573 - 11
• Main Authors: Li, Mubai, Sun, Riming, Chang, Jingxi, Dong, Jingjin, Tian, Qiushuang, Wang, Hongze, Li, Zihao, Yang, Pinghui, Shi, Haokun, Yang, Chao, Wu, Zichao, Li, Renzhi, Yang, Yingguo, Wang, Aifei, Zhang, Shitong, Wang, Fangfang, Huang, Wei, Qin, Tianshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02.02.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/135; 147/143; 147/28; 147/3; 639/301/299/946; 639/4077/909/4101/4096/946; Additives; Bonding strength; Crystallization; Efficiency; Fluorination; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humidity; Hydrogen bonding; Hydrophobicity; Iodides; multidisciplinary; Nucleation; Perovskites; Photovoltaic cells; Polymerization; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Solar cells; Water
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36224-6
• ISSN: 2041-1723

Incorporating mixed ion is a frequently used strategy to stabilize black-phase formamidinum lead iodide perovskite for high-efficiency solar cells. However, these devices commonly suffer from photoinduced phase segregation and humidity instability. Herein, we find that the underlying reason is that the mixed halide perovskites generally fail to grow into homogenous and high-crystalline film, due to the multiple pathways of crystal nucleation originating from various intermediate phases in the film-forming process. Therefore, we design a multifunctional fluorinated additive, which restrains the complicated intermediate phases and promotes orientated crystallization of α-phase of perovskite. Furthermore, the additives in-situ polymerize during the perovskite film formation and form a hydrogen-bonded network to stabilize α-phase. Remarkably, the polymerized additives endow a strongly hydrophobic effect to the bare perovskite film against liquid water for 5 min. The unencapsulated devices achieve 24.10% efficiency and maintain >95% of the initial efficiency for 1000 h under continuous sunlight soaking and for 2000 h at air ambient of ~50% humid, respectively. Formamidinum lead iodide perovskite solar cells commonly suffer from photoinduced phase segregation and humidity instability. Here, the authors design a multifunctional fluorinated additive to promote orientated crystallization of α-phase, and achieve maximum efficiency of 24.1% and T95 over 1000 h.