Spatially heterogeneous chlorine incorporation in organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells

Yanqi Luo, Shany Gamliel, Sally Nijem, Sigalit Aharon, Martin Holt, Benjamin Stripe, Volker Rose, Mariana I. Bertoni, Lioz Etgar, David P. Fenning*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Spatial heterogeneities in the chemical makeup of thin film photovoltaic devices are pivotal in determining device efficiency. We report the in-plane spatial distribution and degree of chlorine incorporation in organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite absorbers by means of nondestructive synchrotron-based nanoprobe X-ray fluorescence. The presence of chlorine is positively identified in CH3NH3PbI3 films synthesized with Cl-containing precursors and as an impurity in some films synthesized with nominally Cl-free precursors. The impurity may be introduced from precursors or as contaminants during film synthesis. The films formed from Cl-containing precursors contain roughly an order of magnitude higher amount of chlorine, with Cl:I values greater than 0.02 found whether Cl is present in either the organic or the inorganic precursor for both one- and two-step fabrication processes. A spatial variation in the Cl incorporation is observed within single particles and as well as between particles within a given film, and the standard deviation of the Cl:I ratio across the films is up to 30% of the average value. Understanding and controlling the heterogeneous distribution of chlorine in hybrid perovskite layers may offer a path to improve their photovoltaic performance.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)6536-6543
Number of pages8
JournalChemistry of Materials
Volume28
Issue number18
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Sep 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge Peter Fueszs experimental assistance at the beamline, and Yang Shao-Horn's helpful support and discussions. Y.L. acknowledges the support of the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative and DPF start-up funds from the University of California, San Diego. L.E. acknowledges the Tashtiot Project of the Ofice of the Chief Scientist, and the German Israel Foundation for Young Researchers. This research used resources of both the Center for Nanoscale materials and the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Spatially heterogeneous chlorine incorporation in organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this