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Suppressing ion migration in metal halide perovskite via interstitial doping with a trace amount of multivalent cations

Nature Materials volume 21, pages 1396–1402 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Cations with suitable sizes to occupy an interstitial site of perovskite crystals have been widely used to inhibit ion migration and promote the performance and stability of perovskite optoelectronics. However, such interstitial doping inevitably leads to lattice microstrain that impairs the long-range ordering and stability of the crystals, causing a sacrificial trade-off. Here, we unravel the evident influence of the valence states of the interstitial cations on their efficacy to suppress the ion migration. Incorporation of a trivalent neodymium cation (Nd3+) effectively mitigates the ion migration in the perovskite lattice with a reduced dosage (0.08%) compared to a widely used monovalent cation dopant (Na+, 0.45%). The photovoltaic performances and operational stability of the prototypical perovskite solar cells are enhanced with a trace amount of Nd3+ doping while minimizing the sacrificial trade-off.

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Fig. 1: Theoretical models of iodide ion migration pathway and detrimental effects of induced tensile microstrain.
Fig. 2: Photovoltaic performance of the perovskite solar cells with or without Nd3+, Ca2+ or Na+ doping and corresponding surface morphology of the perovskite films.
Fig. 3: Passivation effects introduced by cation incorporation.
Fig. 4: Stability enhancements by suppressing ion migration.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under the Solar Energy Technologies Office award no. DE-EE0008751. J.-W.L. and N.-G.P. acknowledge financial support from a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science and ICT) under contract nos 2022R1C1C1011975, 2022M3J1A1064315 and 2021R1A3B1076723 (Research Leader Program). M.W. and J.B. acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos 12104081 and 51872036). Computing resources used in this work were provided by the National Center for High Performance Computing of Turkey (grant no. 1008342020). I.Y. acknowledges support by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK; grant no. 119F380). We thank Y. Chen and X. Li from the Instrumentation and Service Center for Molecular Sciences at Westlake University for the assistance with measurements.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering and California Nano Systems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Yepin Zhao, Shaun Tan, Tianyi Huang, Dong Meng, Jingjing Xue, Anni Zhang, Tae-Hee Han, Wenxin Yang, Qiyu Xing, Yifan Zhou, Elizabeth Zhang & Yang Yang

  2. Department of Physics, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Ilhan Yavuz

  3. Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion, and Electron Beams (Ministry of Education), Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

    Minhuan Wang, Yanfeng Yin, Jin Liu & Jiming Bian

  4. Center for Materials Research, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    Marc H. Weber

  5. Irvine Materials Research Institute, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Mingjie Xu & Xiaoqing Pan

  6. SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT) and Department of Nanoengineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Joo-Hong Lee, Seung-Gu Choi & Jin-Wook Lee

  7. School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China

    Rui Wang, Pengju Shi & Sisi Wang

  8. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Sung-Joon Lee

  9. Department of Physics and Interdisciplinary Course of Physics and Chemistry, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Sung-Joon Lee

  10. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Sang-Hoon Bae

  11. Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Sang-Hoon Bae

  12. Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Tae-Hee Han

  13. State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

    Yantao Shi & Hongru Ma

  14. School of Chemical Engineering and Center for Antibonding Regulated Crystals, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Nam-Gyu Park

  15. SKKU Institute of Energy Science & Technology (SIEST), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Nam-Gyu Park & Jin-Wook Lee

Authors
  1. Yepin Zhao
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Contributions

Y. Zhao and J.-W.L. conceived the idea, designed and conducted the experiments and prepared the manuscript under the supervision of Y. Yang. I.Y. performed the DFT calculations. M.W. collected the SEM data under the supervision of J.B.; M.H.W. performed the positron annihilation spectroscopy test and analysed the data. M.X. helped take the cryogenic cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy images under the supervision of X.P.; J.-H.L. and S.-G.C. conducted the in situ PL and TOF-SIMS measurements. S.T. helped with the X-ray diffraction tests. T.H. performed the transient photovoltage tests. S.-J.L. measured the d.c. temperature-dependent conductivity of the samples. A.Z. helped with film optimization. Y. Yin and J.L. performed the PL and absorption measurements under the supervision of Y.S. and H.M.; W.Y., Q.X., Y. Zhou and E.Z. helped with data analysis. P.S. and S.W. helped with the ICP-MS measurements. R.W., J.X., T.-H.H., S.-H.B. and N.-G.P. provided helpful discussion during the project. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ilhan Yavuz, Jin-Wook Lee or Yang Yang.

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Nature Materials thanks Samuel Stranks 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 Notes 1–3, Figs. 1–28 and Tables 1–10.

Reporting Summary.

Supplementary Video 1

In situ PL measurement using lateral devices based on the reference film and the film incorporated with 0.08% Nd3+. The measurements were made under 440 nm illumination and an electric field of 150 mV μm–1 to visualize the ion migration.

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Zhao, Y., Yavuz, I., Wang, M. et al. Suppressing ion migration in metal halide perovskite via interstitial doping with a trace amount of multivalent cations. Nat. Mater. 21, 1396–1402 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01390-3

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