Dopant-Free Polymer Hole Transport Materials for Highly Stable and Efficient CsPbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells

All-inorganic perovskite CsPbI3 contains no volatile organic components and is a thermally stable photoactive material for wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells (PSCs); however, CsPbI3 readily undergoes undesirable phase transitions due to the hygroscopic nature of the ionic dopants used in commonly used hole transport materials. In the current study, the popular donor material PM6 in organic solar cells is used as a hole transport layer (HTL). The benzodithiophene-based backbone-conjugated polymer requires no dopant and leads to a higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) than 2,2 ',7,7 '-tetrakis[N,N-di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino]-9,9 '-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD). Moreover, PM6 also shows priorities in hole mobility, hydrophobicity, cascade energy level alignment, and even defect passivation of perovskite films. With PM6 as the dopant-free HTL, the PSCs achieve a champion PCE of 18.27% with a competitive fill factor of 82.8%. Notably, the present PCE is based on the dopant-free HTL in CsPbI3 PSCs reported thus far. The PSCs with PM6 as the HTL retain over 90% of the initial PCE stored in a glovebox filled with N-2 for 3000 h. In contrast, the PSCs with Spiro-OMeTAD as the HTL maintain approximate to 80% of the initial PCE under the same conditions.

Automated summary

In this study, the popular donor material PM6 is used as a dopant-free hole transport layer (HTL) in CsPbI3 perovskite solar cells, replacing the commonly used Spiro-OMeTAD. This improves the performance of the PSCs by increasing the power conversion efficiency (PCE). The PSCs with PM6 as the HTL retain over 90% of the initial PCE after being stored in a nitrogen-filled environment for 3000 hours, while the PSCs with Spiro-OMeTAD as the HTL maintain approximately 80% of the initial PCE under the same conditions.