Progress in hole-transporting materials for perovskite solar cells

In recent years the photovoltaic community has witnessed the unprecedented development of perovskite solar cells（PSCs） as they have taken the lead in emergent photovoltaic technologies. The power conversion efficiency of this new class of solar cells has been increased to a point where they are beginning to compete with more established technologies. Although PSCs have evolved a variety of structures, the use of hole-transporting materials（HTMs） remains indispensable. Here, an overview of the various types of available HTMs is presented. This includes organic and inorganic HTMs and is presented alongside recent progress in associated aspects of PSCs, including device architectures and fabrication techniques to produce high-quality perovskite films. The structure, electrochemistry, and physical properties of a variety of HTMs are discussed, highlighting considerations for those designing new HTMs. Finally, an outlook is presented to provide more concrete direction for the development and optimization of HTMs for highefficiency PSCs.

Crucial role of charge transporting layers on ion migration in perovskite solar cells

The device preconditioning dependent hysteresis and the consequential performance degradation hinder the actual performance and stability of the perovskite solar cells. Ion migration and charge trapping in the perovskite with large contribution from grain boundaries are the most common interpretations for the hysteresis. Yet, the high performing devices often include intermediate hole and electron transporting layers, which can further complicate the dynamical process in the device. Here, by using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy and Confocal Photoluminescence Microscopy, we elucidate the impact of chargetransporting layers and excess MAI on the spatial and temporal variations of the photovoltage on the MAPbI3-based solar cells. By studying the devices layer by layer, we found that the light-induced ion migration occurs predominantly in the presence of an imbalanced charge extraction in the solar cells, and the charge transporting layers play crucial role in suppressing it. Careful selection and processing of the electron and hole-transporting materials are thus essential for making perovskite solar cells free from the ion migration effect.

Rational Design of Star-shaped Molecules with Benzene Core and Naphthalimide Derivatives End Groups as Organic Light-emitting Materials

A series of star-shaped molecules with benzene core and naphthalimides derivatives end groups have been designed to explore their optical,electronic,and charge transport properties as charge transport and/or luminescent materials for organic light-emitting diodes（OLEDs）. The frontier molecular orbitals（FMOs） analysis has turned out that the vertical electronic transitions of absorption and emission are characterized as intramolecular charge transfer（ICT）. The calculated results show that the optical and electronic properties of star-shaped molecules are affected by the substituent groups in N-position of 1,8-naphthalimide ring. Our results suggest that star-shaped molecules with n-butyl（1）,benzene（2）,thiophene（3）,thiophene S？,S？-dioxide（4）,benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole（5）,and 2,7a-dihydrobenzo[d]thiazole（6） fragments are expected to be promising candidates for luminescent and electron transport materials for OLEDs. This study should be helpful in further theoretical investigations on such kind of systems and also to the experimental study for charge transport and/or luminescent materials for OLEDs.