Alkyl ammonium iodide-based ligand exchange strategy for high-efficiency organic-cation perovskite quantum dot solar cells

• Published in: Nature energy 2024-03, Vol.9 (3), p.324-332
• Main Authors: Aqoma, Havid, Lee, Sang-Hak, Imran, Imil Fadli, Hwang, Jin-Ha, Lee, Su-Ho, Jang, Sung-Yeon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/299; 639/4077/909/4101/4096/946; Acetic acid; Ammonium; Cations; Economics and Management; Efficiency; Energy; Energy gap; Energy Policy; Energy Storage; Energy Systems; Exchanging; Iodides; Lead compounds; Ligands; Metal halides; Methyl acetate; Perovskites; Photovoltaic cells; Quantum dots; Renewable and Green Energy; Solar cells; Stability
• ISSN: 2058-7546; 2058-7546
• DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01450-9

Whereas lead halide perovskite-based colloidal quantum dots (PQDs) have emerged as a promising photoactive material for solar cells, the research to this point has predominantly focused on inorganic cation PQDs despite the fact that organic cation PQDs have more favourable bandgaps. In this work, we develop solar cells using narrow bandgap organic cation-based PQDs and demonstrate substantially higher efficiency compared with their inorganic counterparts. We employ an alkyl ammonium iodide-based ligand exchange strategy, which proves to be substantially more efficient in replacing the long-chain oleyl ligands than conventional methyl acetate-based ligand exchange while stabilizing the α phase of organic PQDs in ambient conditions. We show a solar cell with the organic cation PQDs with high certified quasi-steady-state efficiency of 18.1% with 1,200-h stability under illumination at open-circuit conditions and 300-h stability at 80 °C. The efficiency of perovskite quantum dot solar cells based on organic cations is relatively low. Aqoma et al. develop an alkyl ammonium iodide-based ligand exchange strategy for the replacement of the long-chain oleyl ligands and phase stabilization that enables 18.1%-efficiency solar cells.