Ionic Liquid Stabilizing High-Efficiency Tin Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

Tin halide perovskites attract incremental attention to deliver lead-free perovskite solar cells. Nevertheless, disordered crystal growth and low defect formation energy, related to Sn(II) oxidation to Sn(IV), limit the efficiency and stability of solar cells. Engineering the processing from perovskite precursor solution preparation to film crystallization is crucial to tackle these issues and enable the full photovoltaic potential of tin halide perovskites. Herein, the ionic liquid n-butylammonium acetate (BAAc) is used to tune the tin coordination with specific O horizontal ellipsis Sn chelating bonds and N-H horizontal ellipsis X hydrogen bonds. The coordination between BAAc and tin enables modulation of the crystallization of the perovskite in a thin film. The resulting BAAc-containing perovskite films are more compact and have a preferential crystal orientation. Moreover, a lower amount of Sn(IV) and related chemical defects are found for the BAAc-containing perovskites. Tin halide perovskite solar cells processed with BAAc show a power conversion efficiency of over 10%. This value is retained after storing the devices for over 1000 h in nitrogen. This work paves the way toward a more controlled tin-based perovskite crystallization for stable and efficient lead-free perovskite photovoltaics.

Automated summary

The use of n-butylammonium acetate (BAAc) to modulate tin coordination in the crystallization process results in more compact and preferentially oriented perovskite films. Perovskite solar cells processed with BAAc show higher power conversion efficiency and improved stability, paving the way for controlled tin-based perovskite crystallization in lead-free photovoltaics.