Ammonium cations with high pKa in perovskite solar cells for improved high-temperature photostability

Mengru Wang, Zhifang Shi, Chengbin Fei, Zhewen J. D. Deng, Guang Yang, Sean P. Dunfield, David P. Fenning and Jinsong Huang ()
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Mengru Wang: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Zhifang Shi: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chengbin Fei: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Zhewen J. D. Deng: University of California San Diego
Guang Yang: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sean P. Dunfield: University of California San Diego
David P. Fenning: University of California San Diego
Jinsong Huang: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Nature Energy, 2023, vol. 8, issue 11, 1229-1239

Abstract: Abstract Phenethylammonium (PEA+) and butylammonium (BA+) are widely used in three-dimensional (3D) perovskites to form two-dimensional perovskites at film surfaces and grain boundaries (GBs) for defect passivation and performance enhancement. Here we show that these cations are unstable with 3D formamidinium (FA+)-containing perovskites under high-temperature light soaking. PEA+ and BA+ are found to deprotonate to amines, which then react with FA+ to produce (phenethylamino)methaniminium (PEAMA+) and (butylamino)methaniminium (BAMA+), respectively, severely limiting device high-temperature photostability. Removing these cations greatly improves the photostability but compromises device efficiency by leaving non-fully passivated surfaces and GBs. Ammonium cations with a high acid dissociation constant (pKa), including PEAMA+ (pKa = 12.0) and BAMA+ (pKa = 12.0), can replace PEA+ or BA+ for passivation and are stable with FA-based perovskites due to their resistance to further deprotonation. P–i–n structure solar cells with PEAMA+ additive maintained over 90% of their initial efficiency after light soaking at open circuit and 90 °C for 1,500 hours.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41560-023-01362-0

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