Novel Phenothiazine-Based Self-Assembled Monolayer as a Hole Selective Contact for Highly Efficient and Stable p-i-n Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Recent advances in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) performance have been closely related to improved interfacial engineering and charge selective contacts. Here, a novel and cost-competitive phenothiazine based, self-assembled monolayer (SAM) as a hole-selective contact for p-i-n PSCs is introduced. The molecularly tailored SAM enables an energetically well-aligned interface with the perovskite absorber, with minimized nonradiative interfacial recombination loss, thus dramatically improving charge extraction/transport and device performance. The resulting PSCs exhibit a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 22.44% (certified 21.81%) with an average fill factor close to 81%, which is among the highest efficiencies reported to date for p-i-n PSCs. The new SAM also demonstrates the outstanding operational stability of the PSC, with increasing PCE from 20.3% to 21.8% during continuous maximum power point tracking under a simulated 1 sun illumination for 100 h. The reported findings highlight the great potential of engineered SAMs for the fabrication of stable and high performing PSCs.