Efficient Lead-Free Solar Cells Based on Hollow {en}MASnI3 Perovskites.

ABSTRACT

Tin-based perovskites have very comparable electronic properties to lead-based perovskites and are regarded as possible lower toxicity alternates for solar cell applications. However, the efficiency of tin-based perovskite solar cells is still low and they exhibit poor air stability. Here, we report lead-free tin-based solar cells with greatly enhanced performance and stability using so-called "hollow" ethylenediammonium and methylammonium tin iodide ({en}MASnI3) perovskite as absorbers. Our results show that en can improve the film morphology and most importantly can serve as a new cation to be incorporated into the 3D MASnI3 lattice. When the cation of en becomes part of the 3D structure, a high density of SnI2 vacancies is created resulting in larger band gap, larger unit cell volume, lower trap-state density, and much longer carrier lifetime compared to classical MASnI3. The best-performing {en}MASnI3 solar cell has achieved a high efficiency of 6.63% with an open circuit voltage of 428.67 mV, a short-circuit current density of 24.28 mA cm-2, and a fill factor of 63.72%. Moreover, the {en}MASnI3 device shows much better air stability than the neat MASnI3 device. Comparable performance is also achieved for cesium tin iodide solar cells with en loading, demonstrating the broad scope of this approach.