Over 24% Efficient Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-Coordinated Perovskite Solar Cells with a Photovoltage up to 1.22 V

Recently, organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have achieved rapid improvement, however, the efficiencies are still behind the Shockley-Queisser theory mainly due to their high energy loss (E-LOSS) in open-circuit voltage (V-OC). Due to the polycrystalline nature of the solution-prepared perovskite films, defects at the grain boundaries as the non-radiative recombination centers greatly affect the V-OC and limit the device efficiency. Herein, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is introduced as polymer-templates in the perovskite film, where the fluorine atoms in the PVDF network can form strong hydrogen-bonds with organic cations and coordinate bonds with Pb2+. The strong interaction between PVDF and perovksite enables slow crystal growth and efficient defect passivation, which effectively reduce non-radiation recombination and minimize E-LOSS of V-OC. PVDF-based PSCs achieve a champion efficiency of 24.21% with a excellent voltage of 1.22 V, which is one of the highest V-OC values reported for FAMAPb(I/Br)(3)-based PSCs. Furthermore, the strong hydrophobic fluorine atoms in PVDF endow the device with excellent humidity stability, the unencapsulated solar cell maintain the initial efficiency of >90% for 2500 h under air ambient of approximate to 50% humid and a consistently high V-OC of 1.20 V.

Automated summary

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is used as a template to control the crystal growth and repair defects in perovskite solar cells, resulting in improved efficiency. Additionally, PVDF provides excellent humidity stability to the cells.