Hydrophobic Cu2O Quantum Dots Enabled by Surfactant Modification as Top Hole‐Transport Materials for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells

• Published in: Advanced science Vol. 6; no. 7; pp. 1801169 - n/a
• Main Authors: Liu, Chang, Zhou, Xianyong, Chen, Shuming, Zhao, Xingzhong, Dai, Songyuan, Xu, Baomin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken John Wiley and Sons Inc 03-04-2019; Wiley
• Subjects: Communication; Communications; inorganic interfacial layer; perovskite solar cells; quantum dots; surface modification
• ISSN: 2198-3844; 2198-3844
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.201801169

The utilization of an inorganic hole‐transport layer (HTL) is one of the most effective methods to improve the stability and reduce the cost of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, achieving high‐quality inorganic HTL films, especially HTL films in n‐i‐p structures, via solution processes remains a big challenge. Here, a simple surface modification strategy for low‐cost and stable cuprous oxide (Cu2O) quantum dots is proposed, which utilizes a silane coupling agent. The modified Cu2O can be directly deposited on the perovskite film as the top HTL without decomposing the perovskite to maintain an n‐i‐p structure. The efficiency (18.9%) of PSCs with surface‐modified Cu2O as the HTL is significantly higher than that (11.9%) of PSCs with unmodified Cu2O, which is also the record efficiency for a Cu2O‐based perovskite solar cell in n‐i‐p structure. The enhanced performance of PSCs is attributed to the remarkably enhanced film properties achieved through surface modification. Moreover, because of the dopant‐free technology and hydrophobic surface, the Cu2O‐based PSCs have distinctly better stability than 2,2′,7,7′‐tetrakis[N,N‐di(4‐methoxyphenyl)amino]‐9,9′‐spiro‐bifluorene‐based PSCs.
Record efficiency of cuprous oxide (Cu2O) based perovskite solar cells with n‐i‐p structure is achieved by using hydrophobic Cu2O quantum dots enabled by surfactant modification as the top hole‐transport layer. This surface modification strategy is feasible to utilize inorganic hole‐transporting materials for n‐i‐p type of perovskite solar cells with low production cost and high device performance, as well as stability.