Halogen-Functionalized Hole Transport Materials with Strong Passivation Effects for Stable and Highly Efficient Quasi-2D Perovskite Solar Cells

The performance of quasi-two-dimensional (Q-2D) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) strongly depends on the interface characteristics between the hole transport material (HTM) and the perovskite layer. In this work, we designed and synthesized a series of HTMs with triphenylamine-carbazole as the core structure and modified end groups with chlorine and bromine atoms. These HTMs show deeper highest occupied molecular orbital energy levels than commercial HTMs. This reduced energy band mismatch between the HTM and perovskite layer facilitates efficient charge extraction at the interface. Moreover, these HTMs containing halogen atoms on the end groups could form halogen bonding with the Pb²⁺ ions at the buried interface of the perovskite layer, effectively passivating defects to suppress nonradiative recombination. Additionally, halogen bonding also contributes to the formation of vertically oriented perovskite crystals with a high quality. By incorporation of chlorohexane-substituted HTMs, the resultant Q-2D PSCs exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency of 21.07%. Furthermore, the devices show improved stability, retaining 97.2% of their initial efficiency after 1100 h of continuous illumination.