High-Performance Inverted Planar Perovskite Solar Cells Enhanced by Thickness Tuning of New Dopant-Free Hole Transporting Layer

A new hole transporting material (HTM) named DMZ is synthesized and employed as a dopant-free HTM in inverted planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Systematic studies demonstrate that the thickness of the hole transporting layer can effectively enhance the morphology and crystallinity of the perovskite layer, leading to low series resistance and less defects in the crystal. As a result, the champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.61% with J_SC = 22.62 mA cm⁻², V_OC = 1.02 V, and FF = 81.05% (an average one is 17.62%) is achieved with a thickness of ≈13 nm of DMZ (2 mg mL⁻¹) under standard global AM 1.5 illumination, which is ≈1.5 times higher than that of devices based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS). More importantly, the devices based on DMZ exhibit a much better stability (90% of maximum PCE retained after more than 556 h in air (relative humidity ≈ 45%–50%) without any encapsulation) than that of devices based on PEDOT:PSS (only 36% of initial PCE retained after 77 h in same conditions). Therefore, the cost-effective and facile material named DMZ offers an appealing alternative to PEDOT:PSS or polytriarylamine for highly efficient and stable inverted planar PSCs.