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Stabilization of formamidinium lead triiodide α-phase with isopropylammonium chloride for perovskite solar cells

Nature Energy volume 6, pages 419–428 (2021)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 06 May 2021

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Abstract

Formamidinium lead triiodide (FAPbI3) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are mainly fabricated by sequentially coating lead iodide and formamidinium iodide, or by coating a solution in which all components are dissolved in one solvent (one-pot process). The PSCs produced by both processes exhibited similar efficiencies; however, their long-term stabilities were notably different. We concluded that the major reason for this behaviour is the stabilization of the α-FAPbI3 phase by isopropylammonium cations produced by the chemical reaction between isopropyl alcohol, used as solvent, and methylammonium chloride, added during the process. On this basis, we fabricated PSCs by adding isopropylammonium chloride to the perovskite precursor solution for the one-pot process and achieved a certified power conversion efficiency of 23.9%. Long-term operational current density–voltage measurements (one sweep every 84 min under 1-Sun irradiation in nitrogen atmosphere) showed that the as-fabricated device with an initial efficiency of approximately 20% recorded an efficiency of about 23% after 1,000 h that gradually degraded to about 22% after an additional 1,000 h.

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Fig. 1: Monitoring the formation of FAPbI3 films.
Fig. 2: HR-TEM characterization of the FAPbI3 films.
Fig. 3: HR-XPS chemical analysis of the three FAPbI3 perovskite thin films.
Fig. 4: Surface, crystal and optophysical properties.
Fig. 5: Computational investigation and PSC performance.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the published article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program (NRF-2018R1A3B1052820) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (MSIP). B.-w.P. acknowledges financial support from the Creative-Challenge Research Program (NRF-2020R1I1A1A01063868). T.J.S. acknowledges financial support under CAP-18-05-KAERI. This work was also supported by a brand project (1.210037.01) of UNIST. Experiments at the PLS-II 6D and 10A2 beamlines were supported in part by MSIT and POSTECH. We thank S. Y. Lee, J. H. Park, I. Choi, G. A. Lee, J. H. Lee, H. J. Mun, D. H. Lee and S.-P. Han of UCRF for their support in powder XRD, FIB sampling, HR-TEM, FESEM, GI-WAXD, ToF-SIMS and NMR analyses.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Byung-wook Park, Hyoung Woo Kwon.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea

    Byung-wook Park, Hyoung Woo Kwon, Yonghui Lee, Do Yoon Lee & Sang Il Seok

  2. Beamline Research Division, Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL), Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Min Gyu Kim, Geonhwa Kim & Ki-jeong Kim

  3. UNIST Central Research Facilities, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea

    Young Ki Kim & Tae Joo Shin

  4. Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Deajeon, Republic of Korea

    Jino Im

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Contributions

B.-w.P., H.W.K. and S.I.S. conceived this work. B.-w.P. and H.W.K. prepared the perovskite thin layers and solar cells and interpreted all data from the analyses. Y.L. and D.Y.L. fabricated the materials and devices for the perovskite solar cells. G.K. and K.-j.K. conducted the XPS investigation. M.G.K. performed the chemical analysis. Y.K.K. carried out HR-TEM analysis. J.I. calculated the formation energy of iPAmHCl–FAPbI3. T.J.S. guided the XPS and GI-WAXD investigations and contributed to their interpretation. B.-w.P. and S.I.S. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tae Joo Shin or Sang Il Seok.

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Peer review information Nature Energy thanks Caterina Ducati and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–25, Tables 1–3 and references.

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Source Data Fig. 5

Photovoltaic parameters of the solar cells shown in the Fig. 5b.

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Park, Bw., Kwon, H.W., Lee, Y. et al. Stabilization of formamidinium lead triiodide α-phase with isopropylammonium chloride for perovskite solar cells. Nat Energy 6, 419–428 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00802-z

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