Crystallization Kinetics Modulation of FASnI3 Films with Pre-nucleation Clusters for Efficient Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells

Xiangyue Meng; Yunfei Li; Yizhi Qu; Haining Chen; Nan Jiang; Minghua Li; Ding-Jiang Xue; Jin-Song Hu; Hui Huang; Shihe Yang

doi:10.1002/anie.202012280

Crystallization Kinetics Modulation of FASnI₃ Films with Pre-nucleation Clusters for Efficient Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Feb 15;60(7):3693-3698. doi: 10.1002/anie.202012280. Epub 2020 Dec 15.

Authors

Xiangyue Meng¹, Yunfei Li¹, Yizhi Qu¹, Haining Chen², Nan Jiang³, Minghua Li⁴, Ding-Jiang Xue⁴, Jin-Song Hu⁴, Hui Huang⁵, Shihe Yang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Optoelectronics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China.
³ Beijing Research Center for Agricultural Standards and Testing, Beijing, 100097, China.
⁴ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁵ Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology & CAS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation & CAS Key Laboratory of Vacuum Physic, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
⁶ Guangdong Key Lab of Nano-Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen, 518055, China.

PMID: 33174357
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202012280

Abstract

Tin halide perovskites are rising as promising materials for lead-free perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the crystallization rate of tin halide perovskites is much faster than the lead-based analogs, leading to more rampant trap states and lower efficiency. Here, we disclose a key finding to modulate the crystallization kinetics of FASnI₃ through a non-classical nucleation mechanism based on pre-nucleation clusters (PNCs). By introducing piperazine dihydriodide to tune the colloidal chemistry of the FASnI₃ perovskite precursor solution, stable clusters could be readily formed in the solution before nucleation. These pre-nucleation clusters act as intermediate phase and thus can reduce the energy barrier for the perovskite nucleation, resulting in a high-quality perovskite film with lower defect density. This PNCs-based method has led to a conspicuous photovoltaic performance improvement for FASnI₃ -based PSCs, delivering an impressive efficiency of 11.39 % plus improved stability.

Keywords: crystallization kinetics; lead-free; perovskite solar cells; pre-nucleation clusters; tin.

Abstract

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