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Alkyl ammonium iodide-based ligand exchange strategy for high-efficiency organic-cation perovskite quantum dot solar cells

Nature Energy volume 9, pages 324–332 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Whereas lead halide perovskite-based colloidal quantum dots (PQDs) have emerged as a promising photoactive material for solar cells, the research to this point has predominantly focused on inorganic cation PQDs despite the fact that organic cation PQDs have more favourable bandgaps. In this work, we develop solar cells using narrow bandgap organic cation-based PQDs and demonstrate substantially higher efficiency compared with their inorganic counterparts. We employ an alkyl ammonium iodide-based ligand exchange strategy, which proves to be substantially more efficient in replacing the long-chain oleyl ligands than conventional methyl acetate-based ligand exchange while stabilizing the α phase of organic PQDs in ambient conditions. We show a solar cell with the organic cation PQDs with high certified quasi-steady-state efficiency of 18.1% with 1,200-h stability under illumination at open-circuit conditions and 300-h stability at 80 °C.

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Fig. 1: Photovoltaic performance and surface characteristics of PQD layers by different ligand exchange methods.
Fig. 2: Effects of different ligand exchange methods on the trap states of PQD.
Fig. 3: Solar cell performance of the PQD-MAI device.
Fig. 4: Long-term stability of PQD solar cells.

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The data supporting the findings of this study are included within the article and its Supplementary Information files.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea under grant numbers NRF-2023R1A2C3002881 (Sang-Hak Lee, J.-H.H., Su-Ho Lee and S.-Y.J.), 2022M3H4A1A03076652 (Sang-Hak Lee, J.-H.H., Su-Ho Lee and S.-Y.J.) and RS-2023-00222006 (Sang-Hak Lee and S.-Y.J.).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Havid Aqoma, Sang-Hak Lee.

Authors and Affiliations

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

    Havid Aqoma, Sang-Hak Lee, Imil Fadli Imran, Jin-Ha Hwang, Su-Ho Lee & Sung-Yeon Jang

  2. Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea

    Sung-Yeon Jang

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Contributions

H.A. and S.-Y.J. conceived of the work. H.A., Sang-Hak Lee and I.F.I. fabricated and characterized solar cells under the guidance of S.-Y.J. H.A. and Sang-Hak Lee conducted FTIR, 1H-MAS NMR and analysis of data. I.F.I. performed TCSPC, TPV/TPC and SCLC measurements. I.F.I. and J.-H.H. conducted GIWAXS and XRD measurements. Sang-Hak Lee and Su-Ho Lee performed transmission electron microscopy, AFM and SEM measurements. S.-Y.J. directed and supervised the project. The manuscript was written by S.-Y.J. and H.A. with comments and inputs from all authors.

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Correspondence to Sung-Yeon Jang.

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Nature Energy thanks Lianzhou Wang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Notes 1 and 2, Figs. 1–20, Tables 1–3 and References.

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Aqoma, H., Lee, SH., Imran, I.F. et al. Alkyl ammonium iodide-based ligand exchange strategy for high-efficiency organic-cation perovskite quantum dot solar cells. Nat Energy 9, 324–332 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01450-9

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