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Two-dimensional Ruddlesden–Popper layered perovskite solar cells based on phase-pure thin films

Abstract

Two-dimensional Ruddlesden–Popper layered metal-halide perovskites have attracted increasing attention for their desirable optoelectronic properties and improved stability compared to their three-dimensional counterparts. However, such perovskites typically consist of multiple quantum wells with a random well width distribution. Here, we report phase-pure quantum wells with a single well width by introducing molten salt spacer n-butylamine acetate, instead of the traditional halide spacer n-butylamine iodide. Due to the strong ionic coordination between n-butylamine acetate and the perovskite framework, a gel of a uniformly distributed intermediate phase can be formed. This allows phase-pure quantum well films with microscale vertically aligned grains to crystallize from their respective intermediate phases. The resultant solar cells achieve a power conversion efficiency of 16.25% and a high open voltage of 1.31 V. After keeping them in 65 ± 10% humidity for 4,680 h, under operation at 85 °C for 558 h, or continuous light illumination for 1,100 h, the cells show <10% efficiency degradation.

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Fig. 1: Optical characteristics of layered perovskite films based on MQWs and phase-pure QWs.
Fig. 2: Structural characteristics of layered perovskite films based on MQWs and phase-pure QWs.
Fig. 3: Probing the formation mechanisms of phase-pure QWs.
Fig. 4: Photovoltaic characteristics and stability of layered PSCs based on MQWs and phase-pure QWs.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Any applicable code relevant to the findings is available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (51972172, 61705102, 61605073, 61935017, 91833304 and 91733302), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFB1002900, 2017YFA0403400), the Macau Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT-116/2016/A3, FDCT-091/2017/A2 and FDCT-014/2017/AMJ), the University of Macau (SRG2016-00087-FST and MYRG2018-00148-IAPME), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2019A1515012186), Projects of International Cooperation and Exchanges NSFC (51811530018), Young 1000 Talents Global Recruitment Program of China, Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professors Program and ‘Six Talent Peaks’ Project in Jiangsu Province, China.

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Contributions

Y.C. and G.X. conceived the idea and designed the experiments. Y.C., G.X. and W.H. supervised the work. C.L., H.G. and Y.X. carried out the device fabrication and characterizations. X.L., L.C., T.N. and B.L. also contributed to device fabrication. C.L., H.G., H.D., H.Y. and S.C. conducted the optical spectra measurements. H.G., M.F. and H.L. synthesized the BAAc. J.Z., S.Z. and H.G. conducted the X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy measurements and analysed the data. Y.P., Y.H. and H.G. carried out the scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mappings. Z.W., J.X. and X.R. carried out the density functional theory calculations. GIWAXS was performed and analysed by W.H., L.S. and X.G., supported by the BL14B1 beamline of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. C.L., H.G. and Y.X. wrote the first draught of the manuscript. Y.C., Y.X., G.X., J.W., G.S. and W.H. participated in data analysis and provided major revisions. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yonghua Chen, Guichuan Xing or Wei Huang.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Note 1, Figs. 1–14, Tables 1–5 and references.

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Supplementary Data 1

Numerical data used to generate Supplementary Fig. 14.

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Liang, C., Gu, H., Xia, Y. et al. Two-dimensional Ruddlesden–Popper layered perovskite solar cells based on phase-pure thin films. Nat Energy 6, 38–45 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00721-5

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