Publication date: 15th July 2022
Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have attracted tremendous attraction over the years both in LED and solar cell performance 1. Several inherent material properties are desirable for both applications such as high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and as well as the minimization of radiative recombination processes 2. Furthermore, PNCs show relatively high defect tolerance and tenability of the band gap due to the easy control of the size of the nanoparticles (NPs) 3. In this work we compare photovoltaic (PV) devices based on (CH2(NH2))2PbI3 (FAPBI3) and CsPbI3. Specifically we compared the photovoltaic (PV) performance of FAPBI3 and CsPbI3 FAPbI3 in various conditions such as in ambient and inert atmospheres as well as introducing several ligand washing (LW) steps. FaPbI3 shows increase in grain size upon the introduction of a ligand washing (LW) step with formamidinium iodide (FAI) in EtAc due to the agglomeration of the nanoparticles (NPs). Devices based on FAPBI3 have achieved a maximum PCE=1.93% with the introduction of 3 LW steps with formamidinium iodide (FA) dissolved in ethyl acetate (EtAc) while CsPbI3 have achieved PCE=1.83 % using the same LW steps. The main limiting factor in both cases is the low Jsc and FF due to the high series resistance (Rs) which is tied to improper oleic acid ligand washing. Oleic acid is known to have low conductivity and therefore proper LW is essential to ensure proper PV performance. Interestingly, solar cells based on FAPBI3 show significantly lower PCE if they are fabricated in ambient conditions compared to inert conditions, while devices based on CsPbI3 show similar PCE in both cases. It is important to note that although solar cells based on CsPbI3 show similar PCEs both in inert and ambient conditions, the solar cells that were fabricated in ambient conditions are less reproducible compare to the ones fabricated in inert atmosphere.
This work was financially supported by the Research and Innovation Foundation of Cyprus under the “NEW STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE UNITS-YOUNG SCIENTISTS” Programme (Grant Agreement No. “INFRASTRUCTURES/1216/0004”, Acronym “NANOSONICS”).