Volume 63, Issue 1 e202315717
Research Article

Cesium Cyclopropane Acid-Aided Crystal Growth Enables Efficient Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells with a High Moisture Tolerance

Yaochang Yue

Yaochang Yue

Heeger Research and Development Center, School of Chemistry, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191 P. R. China

Search for more papers by this author
Rongshen Yang

Rongshen Yang

Heeger Research and Development Center, School of Chemistry, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191 P. R. China

Search for more papers by this author
Weichao Zhang

Weichao Zhang

Heeger Research and Development Center, School of Chemistry, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191 P. R. China

Search for more papers by this author
Qian Cheng

Qian Cheng

CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190 China

Search for more papers by this author
Huiqiong Zhou

Corresponding Author

Huiqiong Zhou

CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190 China

Search for more papers by this author
Yuan Zhang

Corresponding Author

Yuan Zhang

Heeger Research and Development Center, School of Chemistry, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191 P. R. China

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 22 November 2023
Citations: 9

Graphical Abstract

Using cesium cyclopropane acids (C3) gives high crystallization quality in an all-inorganic perovskite CsPbI2Br prepared in a wide ambient moisture window (RH: 25–65 %). The resultant CsPbI2Br solar cells exhibit a high efficiency (>17 %) and excellent environmental stability. The vaporization enthalpy of the side product DMA-acid (adjustable by C3 loads) modifies the perovskite crystallization and device performance under different humidity.

Abstract

While all-inorganic halide perovskites (iHPs) are promising photovoltaic materials, the associated water sensitivity of iHPs calls for stringent humidity control to reach satisfactory photovoltaic efficiencies. Herein, we report a moisture-insensitive perovskite formation route under ambient air for CsPbI2Br-based iHPs via cesium cyclopropane acids (C3) as a compound introducer. With this approach, appreciably enhanced crystallization quality and moisture tolerance of CsPbI2Br are attained. The improvements are attributed to the modified evaporation enthalpy of the volatile side product of DMA-acid initiated by Cs-acids. As such, the water-involving reaction is directed toward the DMA-acids, leaving the target CsPbI2Br perovskites insensitive to ambient humidity. We highlight that by controlling the C3 concentration, the dependence of power conversion efficiency (PCE) in CsPbI2Br devices on the humidity level during perovskite film formation becomes favorably weakened, with the PCEs remaining relatively high (>15 %) associated with improved device stability for RH levels changed from 25 % to 65 %. The champion solar cells yield an impressive PCE exceeding 17 %, showing small degradations (<10 %) for 2000 hours of shell storage and 300 hours of 85/85 (temperature/humidity) tests. The demonstrated C3-based strategy provides an enabler for improving the long-sought moisture-stability of iHPs toward high photovoltaic device performance.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Data Availability Statement

Research data are not shared.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.