Combined Experimental and Simulation Studies of Lithium and Cobalt-Modified TiO2 and Their Impacts on the Performance and Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells
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Author list: Smerchit, Thapanut; Thongprong, Non; Ruengsrisang, Waranchit; Adam, Ibrahim Muhammad; Soe, Kay Thi;
Thansamai, Somya; Chanlek, Narong; Nakajima, Hideki; Supruangnet, Ratchadaporn; Saetang, Viboon;
Kaewprajak, Anusit; Supasai, Thidarat; Rujisamphan, Nopporn;
Publisher: Wiley Open Access
Publication year: 2022
Journal acronym: Adv. Mater. Interfaces
Volume number: 9
Issue number: 31
ISSN: 2196-7350
eISSN: 2196-7350
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
Posttreatment of titanium oxide (TiO2) using lithium (Li) and cobalt (Co) precursors is widely adopted to modify the charge quenching property in perovskite solar cells (PSCs); however, the fundamental understanding of the effect of the modification layer on the material itself and, consequently, the photovoltaic performance stability is not complete. In this work, in situ X-ray diffraction measurements show that the Li and Co ions can diffuse into TiO2 and consequently accelerate the rutile phase transformation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results reveal the appearance of a Ti3+ feature in both the Li- and Co-treated samples, suggesting that the treatment ions are partially located at the subsurface/surface of the spin-cast TiO2 layer. The Li-treated TiO2 exhibits greatly upshifted conduction band edges, which benefits charge extraction properties and improves the average device parameters in a complete PSC. To complement the experiments, density functional theory calculations are performed. While Li treatment initially results in enhanced electronic properties, Li-treated TiO2 tends to have more surface vacancies over time and is more susceptible to adsorption and accumulation of iodide ions compared to the Co-treated sample, which is experimentally supported by surface photovoltage spectroscopy and time-resolved photoluminescence results. © 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Keywords
charge separation, density functional theory simulations, Li/Co-treatments
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