Overcoming photovoltage deficit via natural amino acid passivation for efficient perovskite solar cells and modules

Jinlong Hu; Xin Xu; Yijun Chen; Shaohang Wu; Zhen Wang; Yousheng Wang; Xiaofang Jiang; Boyuan Cai; Tingting Shi; Christoph J. Brabec; Yaohua Mai; Fei Guo

doi:10.1039/D0TA12342K

Overcoming photovoltage deficit via natural amino acid passivation for efficient perovskite solar cells and modules†

Jinlong Hu,^a Xin Xu,^b Yijun Chen,^a Shaohang Wu,

^a Zhen Wang,^a Yousheng Wang,^a Xiaofang Jiang,

^c Boyuan Cai,^d Tingting Shi,*^b Christoph J. Brabec,^ef Yaohua Mai

*^a and Fei Guo

*^ag

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of New Energy Technology, College of Information Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
E-mail: yaohuamai@jnu.edu.cn, fei.guo@jnu.edu.cn

^b Siyuan Laboratory, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Vacuum Coating Technologies and New Energy Materials, Department of Physics, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, P. R. China
E-mail: ttshi@jnu.edu.cn

^c State Key Laboratory of Optic Information Physics and Technologies, School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China

^d Centre for Artificial-Intelligence Nanophotonics, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

^e Institute of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET), Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Martensstrasse 7, Erlangen 91058, Germany

^f Forschungszentrum Jülich, Helmholtz-Institute Erlangen-Nuremberg for Renewable Energies (IEK 11), Immerwahrstr. 2, Erlangen 91058, Germany

^g Key Laboratory of Advanced Material Processing & Mold (Ministry of Education), Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

Abstract

Electronic defects at grain boundaries and surfaces of perovskite crystals impair the photovoltaic performance and stability of solar devices. In this work, we report the compensation of photovoltage losses in blade-coated methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI₃) devices via passivation with natural amino acid (NAA) molecules. We found that the optoelectronic properties of NAA-passivated perovskite films and the corresponding device performances are closely correlated with the molecular interaction strength. A side-by-side comparative study of four typical NAAs reveals that arginine (Arg) functionalized with a guanidine end group exhibits optimum passivation effects owing to the strongest coordinative bonding with the uncoordinated Pb²⁺, which markedly suppresses the detrimental antisite Pb_I deep level defects. As a result, nonradiative charge recombination is significantly reduced, resulting in a substantially increased open-circuit voltage (V_OC) of 1.17 V and a high efficiency of 20.49%. A solar module with an active area of 10.08 cm² is also fabricated, yielding an efficiency of 15.65% with negligible V_OC losses. In parallel, the Arg-passivated solar devices exhibit enhanced operational stability due to the formation of a hydrophilic Arg protective layer which encapsulates the perovskite crystals.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Overcoming photovoltage deficit via natural amino acid passivation for efficient perovskite solar cells and modules†

Abstract

Supplementary files

Article information

Download Citation

Permissions

Overcoming photovoltage deficit via natural amino acid passivation for efficient perovskite solar cells and modules

Social activity

Search articles by author

Spotlight

Advertisements