C8NR05504A
C8NR05504A
C8NR05504A
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The trap states at the interface between perovskite and charge was usually caused by the deep trap states presented at the
transport layer have a great influence on the performance of interface between perovskite and change transport layers.13
perovskite solar cell. Here, a high efficiency MAPbI3-xClx perovskite From theoretic simulation, a 109-1010 cm-2 interface trap states
solar cell has been demonstrated, by introducing a thin layer of LiF could largely reduce the solar cells’ fill factor (FF), open-circuit
or PbF2 between the SnO2/perovskite. The improved charge voltage (Voc), short-circuit current (Jsc) and PCE.17 These
collection and reduced interfacial charge recombination are interface trap states could be caused by several reasons such as
realized, leading to the remarkable raises of both open-circuit the layer-by-layer fabricating process and the lattice
voltage (Voc) and a short-circuit current (Jsc).The successful mismatching between the perovskite and change transport
interfacial passivation paved a new way to fabricate high layers.7,18
performance perovskite solar cell especially with large Voc. Recently a few attempts have been made to eliminate these
interface trap states. By introducing chlorine-capped layer on the
Perovskite solar cells (PVSC) have attracted enormous TiO2 and introducing an organic buffer layer on PEDOT: PSS, the
attention in the past few years for its more and more exciting performances of solar cells have been successfully improved.18,19
progress in power conversion efficiencies (PCE).1,2 Its PCE jumps The surface passivation has been regarded as an efficient method
rapidly from 3.8% (2009) to 23.2% (2018), benefited from the in both papers. It is also worth to mention that the interface
perovskite’s extraordinary optoelectronic properties, such as the defects presented at the light propagated side were more
large absorption coefficient, long carrier lifetime, high tolerance harmful to the PVSC’s PCE.17 Although these attempts only
for trap states.3,4,5 Among these study, plenty of efforts has been scraped the tip of the iceberg, the importance of
devoted to enhance the quality of perovskite film by cation perovskite/charge transfer layer interface has already been
exchanging, additives, solvent engineering and so on.6,7,8,9 demonstrated. To fully understand the interface, obviously more
Besides achieving high quality perovskite films, novel electron- systematical studies are still highly demanded.
transport layers (ETL) and hole-transport layers (HTL) were also In this work, we have found that the LiF can function as a
treated as an important issue for the PCE enhancement10–13. For highly efficient interfacial passivation layer for the
example, charge transport materials with well-aligned band SnO2/perovskite interface, which is widely used.20-21 With this
structure and high mobility such as SnO2 and PTAA were LiF layer, the best Voc increases from 1.06 to 1.16 V, which is very
employed to the perovskite solar cell to improve the PVSC’s close to the recently reported highest Voc(1.18 V)22. And the Jsc
PCE.14,15,16 increases from 20.4 to 21.6 mA·cm-2. The best solar cell’s PCE is
Although the perovskite layer itself has been dramatically 18.3%, which is 22% higher than the reference device. The
improved, as lack of study, the knowledge of the interfaces further investigation of light dependent Voc and impedance
between perovskite and HTL/ETL are still insufficient. According spectrum, were conducted. It gave solid evidences that the LiF
to reported results, once the long carrier diffusion length was had suppressed the surface trap states and reduced the
achieved in perovskite, the loss at the interface became a main interfacial charge recombination. Our research highlights a
factor for further PCE improvement.13,14 The interface PCE loss possibility of opening a new way for suppressing the
SnO2/Perovskite interface trap states, which is of great interest
for efficient perovskite solar cells.
Results and Discussion
Perovskites solar cell fabrication. Fig. 1a shows a schematic of
our perovskite solar cell. A 30 nm thick SnO2 film was spin-
coated on the ITO substrate with a 1% SnO2 colloidal dispersion
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 1
Figure 1. Structure of the PVSC and the J-V of different modified PVSC. (A) Structure of the PVSC. (B) J-V of the devices.
the thickness of LiF or PbF2, the devices were noted as device A layer, the 0.7 nm LiF perovskite solar cell shows a best PCE of
(0 nm LiF), B1 (0.4 nm LiF), B2 (0.7 nm LiF), B3 (1 nm LiF), B4 18.3% with a Voc of 1.15 V, a Jsc of 21.6 mA∙cm-2, and an FF of
(1.5 nm LiF), C (0.7 nm PbF2), respectively. Then, 50 μL 73.7 % under reverse voltage scan. Compared to the device
perovskite precursor solution was spin-coated at a speed of without the LiF layer, the LiF cells’ average Voc is significantly
4000 rpm for 30 s followed by dripping 400 μL methylbenzene increased (from 1.08 to 1.13 V), as shown in Table 1. It is worth
in one second on the rotating film. After that, the film was to note that the best achieved Voc is 1.16, which is among the
annealed at 100 for 7 min in a N2 glove box. A doped Spiro- highest Voc of recent reported SnO2 based PVSCs (listed in the
OMeTAD (80 mg/mL) layer was spin-coated on the perovskite supporting material table S2x). For the Jsc, a thin LiF Layer (<1
film. Finally, a 50 nm gold anode was deposited in the vacuum nm) also lead to a higher Jsc comparing to the reference device,
chamber with an active area of 0.06 cm2. while thicker LiF layer (1.5 nm) could reduce the Jsc because of
Characterization of LiF modified perovskite solar cell. By the additional resistance brought by LiF layer. And for the best
applying a LiF layer between the SnO2 and the perovskite film, device, devices’ series resistance changed from 45.3 ohm to 59.3
2 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx
ohm when increased the LiF from 0 nm to 1.5 nm. (0 nm LiF: formed. 23 So it can be deduced that the LiF layer makes no
45.3 ohm, 0.4 nm LiF: 55.9 ohm, 0.7 nm LiF: 57.5 ohm, 1.0 nm difference in the devices’ light absorption.
LiF: 56.9 ohm, 1.0 nm LiF: 59.3 ohm) Since the light absorption of each device was nearly the
Characterization of LiF modified perovskite films. To explore same, the difference in devices’ PCE could only come from the
the reason why the PVSC with LiF layer exhibiting an different photoelectric conversion efficiency. So the PVSC’s EQE
outstanding performance, the effect of LiF to the perovskite bulk spectra tests were conducted to give us more details about the
properties should be performed. We investigated the perovskite role of LiF layer on photoelectric conversion efficiency.25 The
Published on 21 September 2018. Downloaded by Kaohsiung Medical University on 9/21/2018 8:38:26 AM.
film’s bulk properties by the scanning electron microscope EQE results obtained for the devices with and without LiF are
(SEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD). Firstly, SEM images of the depicted in Fig. 3B. Devices B1 (0.4 nm LiF) and B2 (0.7 nm LiF)
perovskite films on the SnO2 layers with different LiF thicknesses showed higher conversion efficiency than other devices. Those
are shown in Fig. 2. The different perovskite films show very
similar surface morphology. These films are very smooth and
formed by hundreds nanometer perovskite crystals without any
observable pinholes. The XRD patterns are shown in Fig. S1.
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 3
In the equation, Voc,rad is the radiative limit of Voc, EQEEL light’s Voc were much higher than the blue light one. From the
describes the external quantum efficiency of equation (1), a smaller Voc indicates a more severe non-radiation
electroluminescence. According to this equation, the Voc is combination. Combined with the fact that the blue light’s
affected by the carrier’s non-radiation combination. And the absorption length was shorter than the red one, the location of
surface trap states which can greatly promote the carrier’s non- these carrier non-radiation combination traps states can be
rad combination will reduce the Voc significantly. Here, we confirmed to be at the SnO2/perovskite interface. Furthermore,
investigated the PVSC’s Voc curves as a function of illumination for the device B1, B2, B3 the differences of Voc curves between
intensity to further explore the interfacial trap states suppressed the blue and red were reduced and even eliminated. It suggested
by the LiF layer.27 In this experiment two exciting light with the that the LiF layer has successfully eliminated the surface trap
wavelength of 427 nm and 575 nm were applied. Because of the state.
different absorption length (the blue light’s absorption length
(about 80 nm) is shorter than the red (about 300 nm), this The devices’ impedance spectra measurement can further
method can be applied to identify the carrier recombination near identify the effect of modified layers on the surface trap states
the ETL/Perovskite interface. and charge collection.28 Fig. 5A illustrates a schematic diagram of
As shown in the Fig. 4, the devices’ Voc were positive the Nyquist plot of the PVSC with/without LiF layers and the
correlated to the light intensity. Moreover, there is a big equivalent circuit which will be useful in the EIS analysis.29 All
difference between LiF modified PVSC and the reference cells, the device’s Nyquist plots show a typical shape as reported
especially in weak light intensity. All the devices with LiF layer perovskite Nyquist curve plot, which is a half circle at high
show a prefect linear dependence to the light intensity, while the frequency and an arc at low frequency. The equivalent circuit
reference device A is not. In addition, device A’s Voc curves under used to describe these two features comprises the charge
weak light are much smaller than the fitting curves deduced by transport resistances Rs, recombination resistance (Rrec), the
strong light condition. Secondly, device A always has a smaller selective contact capacitance (Ccon) owing to the charge buildup
Voc than the LiF modified PVSC under different light intensity. at the interfaces of perovskite/contact layers, the dielectric
The 1 nm LiF device has the highest Voc which is coincide with relaxation resistance (Rdr) and the dielectric relaxation
the device J-V test. Thus, we suggest a high non-radiation capacitance (Cdr) of the perovskite film. Among these parameters
combination is existing in the reference device A.26 deduced from the equivalent circuit, the charge transport
On the other hand, the difference Voc curves between the resistance Rs and the Ccon are the two most important
blue and red light of each device also gave us a hint where the parameters to characterize the role of LiF layer. The Rs is
non-radiation combinations happened. For the device A, the red constituted of the resistances of FTO, SnO2, LiF, perovskite, HTL,
4 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx
device’s Voc from 1.06 to 1.14 V, while LiTFSI does not affect the
devices’ Voc. Therefore, the F- ion may be the main factor to the
device performance improvement. Recently, Zuo et al. has
demonstrated that the F- ion may change the interfacial chemical
interaction and suppress the surface trap states efficiently19, the
device improvement in this work could also be attributed to the
similar mechanism.
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Conclusions
A simple method of inserting LiF layer has increased the PCE of
the perovskite solar cell up to 18.3%, with a nearly 0.1 V
improvement in Voc. Without a doubt, the light dependent Voc
and impedance results have proved that LiF layer could
Acknowledgments
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 5
6 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx