Azetidinium Lead Iodide for Perovskite Solar Cells

TL;DR

This paper reports the first synthesis of azetidinium lead iodide, a new perovskite material, demonstrating its stability and effectiveness in solar cells, with improved performance over existing methylammonium-based perovskites.

Contribution

First experimental synthesis of azetidinium lead iodide and its application in perovskite solar cells, including mixed cation devices with enhanced efficiency.

Findings

Azetidinium lead iodide is stable and suitable as a solar cell absorber.

Mixed azetidinium-methylammonium devices outperform pure methylammonium cells.

Reduced hysteresis observed in mixed cation perovskite solar cells.

Abstract

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites have been established as good candidate materials for emerging photovoltaics, with device efficiencies of over 22 % being reported. There are currently only two organic cations, methylammonium and formamidinium, which produce 3D perovskites with band gaps suitable for photovoltaic devices. Numerous computational studies have identified azetidinium as a potential third cation for synthesizing organic-inorganic perovskites, but to date no experimental reports of azetidinium containing perovskites have been published. Here we prepare azetidinium lead iodide for the first time and show that it is a stable, bright orange material that can be successfully used as the absorber layer in solar cells. We also show that it is possible to make mixed cation devices by adding the azetidinium cation to methylammonium lead iodide. Mixed azetidinium-methylammonium cells show improved performance and reduced hysteresis compared to methylammonium lead iodide cells.