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Chemical passivation of the under coordinated Pb2+ defects in inverted planar perovskite solar cells via β-diketone Lewis base additives

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Abstract

Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are promising new generations of solar cells, which is low in cost with high power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, PSCs suffer from structural defects generated from the under coordinated ions at the surface, which limits their photovoltaic performances. Herein we report, two β-diketone Lewis base additives 2,4-pentanedione and 3-methyl-2,4-nonanedione within the chlorobenzene anti-solvent to passivate the surface defects generated from the under coordinated Pb2+ ions in CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite films. The incorporation of the two β-diketone passivators could successfully enhance the open-circuit voltage of the PSCs by 52 mV and 17 mV for 3-methyl-2,4-nonanedione and 2,4-pentanedione, respectively, with improved PCE by 45% for 3-methyl-2,4-nonanedione compared to the pristine PSC. This enhancement in the photovoltaic performance of the PSCs can be attributed to passivation of the defects through the interaction between two carbonyl groups of the β-diketone Lewis base additives and the under coordinated Pb2+ defects in the perovskite film, which improved the PSCs PCE and stability.

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Acknowledgements

A.I. acknowledges the support from JSPS KAKENHI Grant no. 18H02079. M. A-S thanks the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research for the financial support through the Egypt-Japan Education Partnership (EJEP)-3rd call.

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Author notes

  1. Ashraful Islam

    Present address: Photovoltaic Materials Group, Center for Green Research on Energy and Environmental Materials, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Photovoltaic Materials Group, Center for Green Research on Energy and Environmental Materials, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan

    Muhammad Abdel-Shakour & Towhid H. Chowdhury

  2. Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8573, Japan

    Muhammad Abdel-Shakour

  3. Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8573, Japan

    Kiyoto Matsuishi, Yutaka Moritomo & Ashraful Islam

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  1. Muhammad Abdel-Shakour
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  2. Towhid H. Chowdhury
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Correspondence to Ashraful Islam.

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Abdel-Shakour, M., Chowdhury, T.H., Matsuishi, K. et al. Chemical passivation of the under coordinated Pb2+ defects in inverted planar perovskite solar cells via β-diketone Lewis base additives. Photochem Photobiol Sci 20, 357–367 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-021-00023-z

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