Research Highlights: Regulating the Crystallization Kinetics and Lattice Strain of Lead-Free Perovskites with Perovskite Quantum Dots

The growth of high-quality tin-based perovskite films remains a grand challenge due to the uncontrollable crystallization kinetics. Here, we report a facile strategy to realize an epitaxial-like growth of highly oriented tin-based perovskite films with the assistance of perovskite quantum dots (PQDs). Synchrotron-based in situ X-ray scattering results reveal that PQDs can act as nucleation centers to promote the growth of highly oriented perovskite crystals for both FASnI3 and MASnI3 systems.… Read More

Research Highlights: Computational Chemistry-Assisted Design of Non-Fullerene Acceptor Enables 17.4% Efficiency in High-Boiling-Point Solvent Processed Binary Organic Solar Cells


Designing new high-performance non-fullerene acceptors is the key driving force for the development of organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, a new acceptor, BOEH‑4Cl, was designed based on the end-group chlorination of L8-BO. Theoretical calculations successfully predicted the expected experimental results based on the optoelectronic properties of BOEH-4Cl and L8-BO and intermolecular interaction of PM6/BOEH-4Cl or L8-BO.… Read More

Research Highlights: Pushing the Efficiency of High Open-Circuit Voltage Binary Organic Solar Cells by Vertical Morphology Tuning

The tuning of vertical morphology is critical and challenging for organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, a high open-circuit voltage (VOC) binary D18-Cl/L8-BO system is attained while maintaining the high short-circuit current (JSC) and fill factor (FF) by employing 1,4-diiodobenzene (DIB), a volatile solid additive. It is suggested that DIB can act as a linker between donor or/and acceptor molecules, which significantly modifies the active layer morphology.… Read More

Research Highlights: ZnO electron transporting layer engineering realized over 20% efficiency and over 1.28 V open-circuit voltage in all-inorganic perovskite solar cells

Cesium lead based all-inorganic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are promising candidates for tandem solar cells owing to their favorable thermal stability and suitable bandgap. However, to exploit the advantage to the full, there is still huge room to reduce energy loss and enhance the VOC. In this work, low-temperature processed ZnO was developed as an ETL alternative.… Read More

Research Highlights: Uncovering the Out-of-plane Nanomorphology of Organic Photovoltaic Bulk Heterojunction by GTSAXS

The record power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaic (OPV) has been boosting rapidly with the development of novel materials and morphology optimization of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) active layer. However, the quantitative determination of out-of-plane nanoscale phase structure of BHJ is still under great challenge. The thin film device structure breaks the symmetry into the in-plane (IP) direction and out-of-plane (OOP) direction with respect to the substrate, leading to an intrinsic anisotropy in the bulk morphology.… Read More

Research Highlights: A Systematic Review of Metal Halide Perovskite Crystallization and Film Formation Mechanism Unveiled by In Situ GIWAXS


Metal halide perovskites are of fundamental interest in the research of modern thin-film optoelectronic devices, owing to their widely tunable optoelectronic properties and solution processibility. To obtain high-quality perovskite films and ultimately high-performance perovskite devices, it is crucial to understand the film formation mechanisms, which, however, remains a grand challenge, due to the complexity of perovskite composition, dimensionality, and processing conditions.… Read More

Research Highlights: Control over Light Soaking Effect in All-Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells

Light soaking (LS) has been reported to positively influence the device performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), which, however, could be potentially harmful to the loaded devices due to the unstable output. There are very few reports on controls over the LS effect, especially in all-inorganic PSCs. In this work, we present a remarkable LS induced performance enhancement of CsPb(I1-xBrx)3 based PSCs.… Read More

Research Highlights: Ternary Blending Driven Molecular Reorientation of Non-Fullerene Acceptor IDIC with Backbone Order


The bulk-heterojunction morphology of organic solar cells is well recognized to be critical to the device performance and has received extensive research efforts in developing viable morphology tuning strategies. In this work, we present a morphology tuning approach for the molecular packing orientation, that is, through the ternary mixing of a donor polymer FTAZ with two distinctly oriented non-fullerene acceptors, IDIC and INIC3.… Read More

Research Highlights: Precise Control of Perovskite Crystallization Kinetics via Sequential A-site Doping

 

Two-step fabricated FAPbI3-based perovskites have attracted increasing attention because of their excellent film quality and reproducibility. However, the underlying film formation mechanism remains mysterious. In this work, the crystallization kinetics of a benchmark FAPbI3-based perovskite film with sequential A-site doping of Cs+ and GA+ has been revealed by in situ X-ray scattering and first-principles calculations.… Read More

Research Highlights: Understanding Charge Transport in All-Inorganic Halide Perovskite Nanocrystal Thin-Film Field Effect Transistors

Charge transport mechanism in nanocrystal (NC) films is known to be very different from that in the bulk films. The charge transport in halide perovskite-NC films is further complicated due to the ionic nature of perovskites. In this work, we fabricate all-inorganic CsPbBr3 NCs terminated with short ligands into field effect transistors, which provides a facile platform to study the charge transport mechanism systematically.… Read More