Molecular contacts with an orthogonal π-skeleton induce amorphization to enhance perovskite solar cell performance

Molecular contacts with an orthogonal π-skeleton induce amorphization to enhance perovskite solar cell performance

Nature Chemistry

10.1038/s41557-025-01732-z

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-025-01732-z

Jingjing Zhou, Yixin Luo, Runda Li, Liuwen Tian, Ke Zhao, Jiahui Shen, Donger Jin, Zixuan Peng, Libing Yao, Li Zhang, Qingqing Liu, Shaochen Zhang, Lu Jin, Shenglong Chu, Sisi Wang, Yuan Tian, Jiazhe Xu, Xu Zhang, Pengju Shi, Xiaonan Wang, Wei Fan, Xuechun Sun, Jingyi Sun, Luo-Zhou Chen, Gang Wu, Wen Shi, Hong-Fei Wang, Tianqi Deng, Rui Wang, Deren Yang, Jingjing Xue

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

06 February 2025

Zhou, J., Luo, Y., Li, R., Tian, L., Zhao, K., Shen, J., Jin, D., Peng, Z., Yao, L., Zhang, L., Liu, Q., Zhang, S., Jin, L., Chu, S., Wang, S., Tian, Y., Xu, J., Zhang, X., Shi, P., et al. (2025). Molecular contacts with an orthogonal π-skeleton induce amorphization to enhance perovskite solar cell performance. Nature Chemistry, 17(4), 564–570. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-025-01732-z

Perovskite solar cells represent a promising class of photovoltaics that have achieved exceptional levels of performance within a short time. Such high efficiencies often depend on the use of molecule-based selective contacts that form highly ordered molecular assemblies. Although this high degree of ordering usually benefits charge-carrier transport, it is disrupted by structure deformation and phase transformation when subjected to external stresses, which limits the long-term operational stability of perovskite solar cells. Here we demonstrate a molecular contact with an orthogonal π-skeleton that shows better resilience to external stimuli than commonly used conjugated cores. This molecular design yields a disordered, amorphous structure that is not only highly stable but also demonstrates exceptional charge selectivity and transport capability. The perovskite solar cells fabricated with this orthogonal π-skeleton molecule exhibited enhanced long-term durability in accelerated-ageing tests. This orthogonal π-skeleton functionality opens new opportunities in molecular design for applications in organic electronics.

Publisher Copyright

There was no specific funding for the research done

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Nature Chemistry. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41557-025-01732-z.

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/23389

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Institute of High Performance Computing