Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.142, No.21, 9725-9734, 2020
V-OC Over 1.4 V for Amorphous Tin-Oxide-Based Dopant-Free CsPbI2Br Perovskite Solar Cells
CsPbI2Br perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention because of the rapid development in their efficiency and their great potential as a top cell of tandem solar cells. However, the V-OC outputs observed so far in most cases are far from that desired for a top cell. Up to now, with various kinds of treatments, the reported champion V-OC is only 1.32 V, with a V-OC deficit of 0.60 V. In this work, we found that aging of the SnCl2 precursor solution for the electron-transporting layer can promote the V-OC of CsPbI2Br solar cells by employing a dopant-free-polymer hole transport material (HTM) over 1.40 V and efficiency over 15.5% with high reproducibility. With the champion V-OC of 1.43 V, the V-OC deficit was reduced to <0.50 V, which is achieved for the first time. This simple technique of SnCl2 solution aging forms a uniform and smooth amorphous SnOx film with pure Sn4+, elevates the conduction band of SnOx, and reduces the interfacial gaps and the trap state density of the device, resulting in enhancement in average V-OC from similar to 1.2 V in the nonaged case to similar to 1.4 V in the aged case. Furthermore, the device using an aged SnCl2 solution also exhibits a much better long-term stability than that made of the fresh solution. These achievements in dopant/additive-free CsPbI2Br solar cells can be useful for future research on CsPbI2Br and tandem solar cells.