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Vol. 14 (2022)

Unraveling Passivation Mechanism of Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids on Inorganic Perovskite to Achieve Near-Record-Efficiency CsPbI2Br Solar Cells

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-021-00763-8
Jie Xu
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Jian Cui
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Shaomin Yang
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Yu Han
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Xi Guo
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Yuhang Che
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Dongfang Xu
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Chenyang Duan
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Wenjing Zhao
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Kunpeng Guo
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Interface Science and Engineering in Advanced Materials, Research Center of Advanced Materials Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, People’s Republic of China
Wanli Ma
Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon‑Based Functional Materials & Devices, Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon‑Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People’s Republic of China
Baomin Xu
Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Shenzhen Engineering Research and Development Center for Flexible Solar Cells, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of China
Jianxi Yao
State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System With Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, People’s Republic of China
Zhike Liu
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China
Shengzhong Liu
Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices; Shaanxi Engineering Lab for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Shengzhong Liu

szliu@dicp.ac.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 14 (2022), Article Number: 7

Abstract

The application of ionic liquids in perovskite has attracted wide-spread attention for its astounding performance improvement of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the detailed mechanisms behind the improvement remain mysterious. Herein, a series of imidazolium-based ionic liquids (IILs) with different cations and anions is systematically investigated to elucidate the passivation mechanism of IILs on inorganic perovskites. It is found that IILs display the following advantages: (1) They form ionic bonds with Cs+ and Pb2+ cations on the surface and at the grain boundaries of perovskite films, which could effectively heal/reduce the Cs+/I− vacancies and Pb-related defects; (2) They serve as a bridge between the perovskite and the hole-transport-layer for effective charge extraction and transfer; and (3) They increase the hydrophobicity of the perovskite surface to further improve the stability of the CsPbI2Br PSCs. The combination of the above effects results in suppressed non-radiative recombination loss in CsPbI2Br PSCs and an impressive power conversion efficiency of 17.02%. Additionally, the CsPbI2Br PSCs with IILs surface modification exhibited improved ambient and light illumination stability. Our results provide guidance for an in-depth understanding of the passivation mechanism of IILs in inorganic perovskites.


Highlights:


1 A series of 10 imidazolium-based ionic liquids (IILs) with different cations and anions have applied to unravel the passivation mechanism of the IILs on CsPbI2Br inorganic perovskites.
2 It is found that anions of IILs play a more important role in passivation of lead- and cesium-related defects in inorganic perovskite compared with imidazole cations because they can form strong ionic interactions (Pb-F, Cs-F).
3 A high-power conversion efficiency of 17.02% is obtained, which is among the highest values of CsPbI2Br-based perovskite solar cells.

Keywords

Ionic liquids Inorganic perovskite Imidazolium Passivation High efficiency
Xu, Jie, Jian Cui, Shaomin Yang, Yu Han, Xi Guo, Yuhang Che, Dongfang Xu, Chenyang Duan, Wenjing Zhao, Kunpeng Guo, Wanli Ma, Baomin Xu, Jianxi Yao, Zhike Liu, and Shengzhong Liu. 2021. “Unraveling Passivation Mechanism of Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids on Inorganic Perovskite to Achieve Near-Record-Efficiency CsPbI2Br Solar Cells”. Nano-Micro Letters 14 (December):7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-021-00763-8.
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