Low-Molecular Weight Molecules as Selective Contacts for Perovskite Solar Cells

Photovoltaic technology is one of the most promising clean, renewable energy sources to reduce the environmental impacts of fossil fuels over the last decades. In this context, perovskites are a recently developed new photovoltaic material, which have drawn important attention due to their ability to achieve very high efficiencies. However, the large-scale industrial application of perovskite solar cells stays in the background of silicon-based solar cells, because of their dramatically shorter lifetime under operating conditions. The charge selective layers play a crucial role in the rapid rise in device performance and stability of perovskite solar cells. Recently, the application of self-assembled monolayers as charge selective layers in perovskite solar cells has gained tremendous attention, owing to advantages like cost-effectiveness, stability, and the absence of additives.

The aim of this thesis is to design and synthesise novel molecules able to form self-assembled monolayers that act as hole selective materials in perovskite solar cells for achieving high power conversion efficiency and exceptionally durable operational lifetime. To determine the real working conditions of complete devices, custom-built high throughput ageing setup is used. This ageing setup estimates the energy output of a solar cell in operation by obtaining the accurate efficiency value from the maximum power point.

Moreover, charge selective layers are responsible for the transport of photogenerated charges out of the solar cell and are in intimate contact with the perovskite absorber. For that reason, the carrier recombination order in the newly synthesized Lewis base-made interlayer and in the self-assembled monolayer are investigated in functional devices, using advanced characterisation techniques, such as photo-induced charge extraction, photo-induced transient photovoltage, photo-induced transient photocurrent, and differential capacitance.

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