Highly Stable and Efficient Formamidinium-Based 2D Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite Solar Cells via Lattice Manipulation.

Formamidinium (FA)-based 2D perovskites have emerged as highly promising candidates in solar cells. However, the insertion of 2D spacer cations into the perovskite lattice concomitantly introduces microstrain and unfavorable orientations that hinder efficiency and stability. In this study, by finely tuning the FA-based 2D perovskite lattice through spacer cation engineering, a stable lattice structure with balanced distortion, microstrain relaxation, and reduced carrier-lattice interactions is achieved. These advancements effectively stabilize the inherently soft lattice against light and thermal-aging stress. To reduce the photocurrent loss induced by undesired crystal texture, a polarity-matched molecular-type selenourea (SENA) additive is further employed to modulate the crystallization kinetics. The introduction of the SENA significantly inhibits the disordered crystallization induced by spacer cations and drives the templated growth of the quantum well structure with a vertical orientation. This controlled crystallization process effectively reduces crystal defects and enhances charge separation. Ultimately, the optimized FA-based perovskite photovoltaic devices achieve a remarkable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.03% (certified steady-state efficiency of 19.30%), setting a new record for low-n 2D perovskite solar cells. Furthermore, the devices exhibit less than 1% efficiency degradation after operating at maximum power point for 1000 h and maintain excellent stability after thermal aging and cycles of cold-warm shock, respectively.

Transporting holes stably under iodide invasion in efficient perovskite solar cells.

Highly efficient halide perovskite solar cells generally rely on lithium-doped organic hole transporting layers that are thermally and chemically unstable, in part because of migration of iodide anions from the perovskite layer. We report a solution strategy to stabilize the hole transport in organic layers by ionic coupling positive polymer radicals and molecular anions through an ion-exchange process. The target layer exhibited a hole conductivity that was 80 times higher than that of the conventional lithium-doped layer. Moreover, after extreme iodide invasion caused by light-soaking at 85°C for 200 hours, the target layer maintained high hole conductivity and well-matched band alignment. This ion-exchange strategy enabled fabrication of perovskite solar cells with a certified power conversion efficiency of 23.9% that maintained 92% under standard illumination at 85°C after 1000 hours.

The high efficient catalytic properties for thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate using mesoporous ZnCo2O4 rods synthesized by oxalate co-precipitation method.

Mesoporous ZnCo2O4 rods have been successfully prepared via oxalate co-precipitation method without any template. The nano-sized spinel crystallites connected together to form mesoporous structure by annealing homogeneous complex oxalates precursor at a low rate of heating. It is found that the low anneal rate plays an important role for the formation of mesoporous ZnCo2O4 rods. The effects of the heat temperature on the phase, morphology and catalytic properties of the products were studied. The XRD, SEM TEM, and N2 absorption/desorption have been done to obtain compositional and morphological information as well as BET surface area of the as-prepared sample. Catalytic activities of mesoporous ZnCo2O4 rods toward the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG) techniques. The results show that the addition of ZnCo2O4 rods to AP dramatically reduces the decomposition temperature. The ZnCo2O4 rods annealed at 250 °C possesses much larger specific area and exhibits excellent catalytic activity (decrease the high decomposition temperature of AP by 162.2 °C). The obtained mesoporous ZnCo2O4 rods are promising as excellent catalyst for the thermal decomposition of AP.