Research News

Controlling Film Formation to Improve Performance of Dion-Jacobson 2D Perovskite Solar Cells

Posted: 2021-06-04

The Dion-Jacobson (DJ) two-dimensional (2D) hybrid perovskite semiconductor is promising due to its outstanding stability and excellent optoelectronic properties.

Recently, a group led by Prof. LIU Shengzhong (Frank) from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. ZHAO Kui from Shaanxi Normal University, achieved high performance DJ 2D perovskite solar cells by controlling the film formation.

This study was published in Advanced Energy Materials on March 31.

Through in situ analysis of film formation, the researchers investigated the crystallization mechanism from liquid precursors to the solid film, as well as how it would influence multiple quantum well (QW) growth, charge transport, and solar cell performance.

They found that faster taking of solvent during spinning process enabled faster nucleation and growth during spinning, which avoided indirect transformation from intermediate phases to perovskites. Therefore, better film quality and more uniform thickness distribution of QWs could be achieved.

The improved optoelectronic properties including higher efficient charge transport, higher carrier lifetime, and mobility finally translated to the improvements of short circuit current density and open circuit voltage. This led to a power conversion efficiency (PCE) as high as 15.81%, the higher for aromatic spacer-based DJ perovskite solar cells.

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National University Research Fund, and the 111 Project. (Text by ZHANG Xu)