Redox-Improved Self-Assembled Monolayers for Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells
Inverted perovskite solar cells (pero-SCs) utilizing nickel oxide (NiO<sub>x</sub>)/self-assembled monolayer (SAM) as a hole transport layer (HTL) have demonstrated high power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, variations in the valence states of NiO<sub>x</sub> on the surface create complexity in the growth of a high-quality SAM HTL. To address these challenges, a new SAM molecule MeOF-4SHCz is synthesized and utilized to target the Ni<sup>3+</sup>-rich regions on the NiO<sub>x</sub> substrate. A redox reaction occurs at the interface and the oxidation product of MeOF-4SHCz forms a new S-O-Ni bonding at the Ni<sup>3+</sup>-rich regions. The application of the combined SAMs of MeOF-4SHCz and the regular SAM MeOF-4PACz can improve the overall coverage and uniformity of the SAM layer on NiO<sub>x</sub>. As a result, the optimized inverted pero-SCs based on this redox-improved (ROI)-SAM HTL of MeOF-4SHCz/MeOF-4PACz = 4:1 (w/w) achieve a high PCE of 26.5% (certified as 26.28%) and improved stability with T<sub>90</sub> > 1000 hours.
Authors
- Xiaojun Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9633-0087)
- Y. John Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6370-5849)
- Lei Meng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2775-362X)
- Yao Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0613-8708)
- Jing Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6224-1542)
- Jinyuan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5072-4934)
- Yongfang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2565-2748)
- Zekun Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6924-1844)
- Meng Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6254-4294)
- Shucheng Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2506-4280)
- Minchao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2142-9762)
- Zhe Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2450-5451)
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Soochow University (CN)
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (CN)
- Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (CN)
- Institute of Chemistry (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66421-4
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Perovskite Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- National Key Research and Development Program of China