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N-substituted phenothiazines as environmentally friendly hole-transporting materials for low-cost and highly stable halide perovskite solar cells

Salunke, Jagadish ; Guo, Xing ; Liu, Maning LU orcid ; Lin, Zhenhua ; Candeias, Nuno R. ; Priimagi, Arri ; Chang, Jingjing and Vivo, Paola (2020) In ACS Omega 5(36). p.23334-23342
Abstract

Most of the high-performing halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) leverage toxic chlorinated solvents (e.g., o-dichlorobenzene or chlorobenzene) for the hole-transporting material (HTM) processing and/or antisolvents in the perovskite film fabrication. To minimize the environmental and health-related hazards, it is highly desirable, yet at the same time demanding, to develop HTMs and perovskite deposition processes relying on nonhalogenated solvents. In this work, we designed two small molecules, AZO-III and AZO-IV, and synthesized them via simple and environmentally friendly Schiff base chemistry, by condensation of electron-donating triarylamine and phenothiazine moieties connected through an azomethine bridge. The molecules are... (More)

Most of the high-performing halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) leverage toxic chlorinated solvents (e.g., o-dichlorobenzene or chlorobenzene) for the hole-transporting material (HTM) processing and/or antisolvents in the perovskite film fabrication. To minimize the environmental and health-related hazards, it is highly desirable, yet at the same time demanding, to develop HTMs and perovskite deposition processes relying on nonhalogenated solvents. In this work, we designed two small molecules, AZO-III and AZO-IV, and synthesized them via simple and environmentally friendly Schiff base chemistry, by condensation of electron-donating triarylamine and phenothiazine moieties connected through an azomethine bridge. The molecules are implemented as HTMs in PSCs upon processing in a nonchlorinated (toluene) solvent, rendering their synthesis and film preparation eco-friendly. The enhancement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) was achieved when switching from AZO-III (9.77%) to AZO-IV (11.62%), in which the thioethyl group is introduced in the 2-position of the phenothiazine ring. Additionally, unencapsulated PSCs based on AZO-III displayed excellent stabilities (75% of the initial PCEs is retained after 6 months of air exposure for AZO-III to be compared with a 48% decrease of the initial PCE for Spiro-OMeTAD-based devices). The outstanding stability and the extremely low production cost (AZO-III = 9.23 $/g and AZO-IV = 9.03 $/g), together with the environmentally friendly synthesis, purification, and processing, make these materials attractive candidates as HTMs for cost-effective, stable, and eco-friendly PSCs.

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author
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
ACS Omega
volume
5
issue
36
pages
9 pages
publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
external identifiers
  • scopus:85092010828
ISSN
2470-1343
DOI
10.1021/acsomega.0c03184
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
59d174c3-ca1c-4da4-9e74-4e2f32da609b
date added to LUP
2023-08-24 12:29:32
date last changed
2023-08-28 08:06:24
@article{59d174c3-ca1c-4da4-9e74-4e2f32da609b,
  abstract     = {{<p>Most of the high-performing halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) leverage toxic chlorinated solvents (e.g., o-dichlorobenzene or chlorobenzene) for the hole-transporting material (HTM) processing and/or antisolvents in the perovskite film fabrication. To minimize the environmental and health-related hazards, it is highly desirable, yet at the same time demanding, to develop HTMs and perovskite deposition processes relying on nonhalogenated solvents. In this work, we designed two small molecules, AZO-III and AZO-IV, and synthesized them via simple and environmentally friendly Schiff base chemistry, by condensation of electron-donating triarylamine and phenothiazine moieties connected through an azomethine bridge. The molecules are implemented as HTMs in PSCs upon processing in a nonchlorinated (toluene) solvent, rendering their synthesis and film preparation eco-friendly. The enhancement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) was achieved when switching from AZO-III (9.77%) to AZO-IV (11.62%), in which the thioethyl group is introduced in the 2-position of the phenothiazine ring. Additionally, unencapsulated PSCs based on AZO-III displayed excellent stabilities (75% of the initial PCEs is retained after 6 months of air exposure for AZO-III to be compared with a 48% decrease of the initial PCE for Spiro-OMeTAD-based devices). The outstanding stability and the extremely low production cost (AZO-III = 9.23 $/g and AZO-IV = 9.03 $/g), together with the environmentally friendly synthesis, purification, and processing, make these materials attractive candidates as HTMs for cost-effective, stable, and eco-friendly PSCs.</p>}},
  author       = {{Salunke, Jagadish and Guo, Xing and Liu, Maning and Lin, Zhenhua and Candeias, Nuno R. and Priimagi, Arri and Chang, Jingjing and Vivo, Paola}},
  issn         = {{2470-1343}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  number       = {{36}},
  pages        = {{23334--23342}},
  publisher    = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
  series       = {{ACS Omega}},
  title        = {{N-substituted phenothiazines as environmentally friendly hole-transporting materials for low-cost and highly stable halide perovskite solar cells}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c03184}},
  doi          = {{10.1021/acsomega.0c03184}},
  volume       = {{5}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}