Investigating the feasibility of symmetric guanidinium based plumbate perovskites in prototype solar cell devices

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 56; no. 8S2; pp. 8 - 13
• Main Authors: Kulkarni, Sneha A., Baikie, Tom, Muduli, Subas, Potter, Rob, Chen, Shi, Yanan, Fanan, Bishop, Peter, Lim, Swee Sien, Sum, Tze Chien, Mathews, Nripan, White, Tim J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo The Japan Society of Applied Physics 01-08-2017; Japanese Journal of Applied Physics
• Subjects: Cations; Dipole moments; Feasibility; Perovskites; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon wafers; Solar cells; Symmetry
• ISSN: 0021-4922; 1347-4065
• DOI: 10.7567/JJAP.56.08MC05

In this work we have studied the feasibility of highly symmetric guanidinium (GA; CH6N3+) cation in perovskite based solar cells. It is an alternative to the methyl ammonium (MA; CH3NH3+) or formamidinium (FA; CH(NH2)2+) ions commonly utilized in the perovskite solar cells, may bring additional advantages due to its triad rotational symmetry and zero dipole moment (μ). We noticed that due to steric factors, GA preferably forms two-dimensional (2D) layer, where GA2PbI4 is favored monoclinic structure (Eg = 2.5 eV) and the obtained device efficiency is η = 0.45%. This study provides a guideline for designing guanidinium based perovskite absorbers for solar cell devices. In addition, through further compositional engineering with mixed organic cations using GA may enhance the device performance.