Potassium thiocyanate additive for PEDOT:PSS layer to fabricate efficient tin-based perovskite solar cells

The commercialized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)is usually used as hole transport layers(HTLs)in tin-based perovskite solar cells(TPSCs).However,the further development has been restricted due to the acidity that could damage the stability of TPSCs.Although the PEDOT:PSS solution can be diluted by water to decrease acidity and reduce the cost of device fabrication,the electrical conductivity will decrease obviously in diluted PEDOT:PSS solution.Herein,potassium thiocyanate(KSCN)is selected to regulate the properties of PEDOT:PSS HTLs from the diluted PEDOT:PSS aqueous solution by water with a volume ratio of 1:1 to prepare efficient TPSCs.The effect of KSCN addition on the structure and photoelectrical properties of PEDOT:PSS HTLs and TPSCs have been systematically studied.At the optimal KSCN concentration,the TPSCs based on KSCN-doped PEDOT:PSS HTLs(KSCN-PSCs)demonstrate the champion power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 8.39%,while the reference TPSCs only show a champioan PCE of 6.70%.The further analysis demonstrates that the KSCN additive increases the electrical conductivity of HTLs prepared by the diluted PEDOT:PSS solution,improves the microstructure of perovskite film,and inhibits carrier recombination in TPSCs,leading to the reduced hysteresis effect and enhanced PCE in KSCN-PSCs.This work gives a low-cost and practical strategy to develop a high-quality PEDOT:PSS HTLs from diluted PEDOT:PSS aqueous solution for efficient TPSCs.

Simulating ion clustering in potassium thiocyanate aqueous solutions with various ion-water models

Using a molecular dynamics simulation technique,we compared several commonly used ion-water models to describe the microscopic structures and dynamics in KSCN aqueous solutions.Results are compared with observations of femtosecond infrared vibrational-energy transfer and anisotropy measurements.The Jorgensen/TIP4P model is found to provide the best reproduction of clustering properties such as percentage of clustered ions,cluster-size distribution,concentration dependence of the water,and ion-rotation time constants.