Favorable grain growth of thermally stable formamidinium-methylammonium perovskite solar cells by hydrazine chloride

Formamidinium methylammonium lead iodine (FAMAPbI3) based perovskite solar cells have reached phenomenal efficiencies recently. However, it is difficult to form pure black alpha-phase perovskite by solution method. Meanwhile, the formed polycrystalline FAMAPbI3 film often has large amount of grain boundaries, which can consist dangling bonds and iodide ions. Under illumination and heat, iodide ions can easily migrate and oxidize to form iodine, thus decompose the structure of perovskite and reduce the device performance. Herein, hydrazine chloride (HACl) as an additive is employed to promote favorable grain orientation during the growth of perovskite crystals. From grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), HACl can facilitate strong diffraction signals along crystallographic planes (100) and (200) indicating a strengthened lattice structure for alpha-phase FAPbI3 and significantly decrease the grain boundaries for reduced carrier recombination. Consequently, the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with optimized content of HACl lead to a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 22.32% (certified PCEs of 21.59%) in a mesoporous device based on (FAPbI3)0.95(MAPbBr3)0.05 perovskite solar cells. Furthermore, from UV-vis and XPS spectrum, HACl can reduce iodine (I0) to iodide (I-) effectively, meaning the process of decomposition of FAMAPbI3-based perovskite has been greatly inhibited. As a result, unencapsulated device can retain 95% of its original power conversion efficiency after 1400 h of continuous one-sun illumination. Meanwhile, thermal (60 degrees C) stability is also greatly improved by maintaining 90% of initial efficiency after aging for 1400 h.

Automated summary

In this study, hydrazine chloride (HACl) as an additive was used to promote favorable grain orientation during the growth of perovskite crystals, leading to improved efficiency of perovskite solar cells. HACl was found to reduce grain boundaries, enhance lattice structure, and significantly decrease carrier recombination, resulting in higher power conversion efficiency of the solar cells.