Liquid electrolyte-free, solid-state solar cells with inorganic hole transport materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9803136-B2
Application number	US-201313772794-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 21, 2013
Priority date	Feb 21, 2012
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

Photovoltaic cells incorporating the compounds A/M/X compounds as hole transport materials are provide. The A/M/X compounds comprise one or more A moieties, one or more M atoms and one or more X atoms. The A moieties are selected from organic cations and elements from Group 1 of the periodic table, the M atoms are selected from elements from at least one of Groups 3, 4, 5, 13, 14 or 15 of the periodic table, and the X atoms are selected from elements from Group 17 of the periodic table.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solid state photovoltaic cell comprising:
(a) a first electrode comprising an electrically conductive material;
(b) a second electrode comprising an electrically conductive material;
(c) a porous photoactive material disposed between, and in electrical communication with the first and second electrodes; and
(d) a hole transporting material comprising an A/M/X compound, wherein the hole transporting material is disposed between the first and second electrodes and is configured to facilitate the transport of holes generated in the photoactive material to one of the first and second electrodes and further wherein the hole transporting material takes the form of a continuous conformal coating that overlies the porous film and also homogeneously infiltrates the pores within the porous film;
wherein an A/M/X compound is a compound comprising one or more A moieties, one or more M atoms and on or more X atoms, where the A moieties are selected from elements from Group 1 of the periodic table, the M atoms are selected from elements from at least one of Groups 3, 4, 5, 13, 14 or 15 of the periodic table, and the X atoms are selected from elements from Group 17 of the periodic table; and
further wherein the solid state photovoltaic cell does not comprise a liquid electrolyte and the solid state photovoltaic cell also does not comprise a conducting polymer hole transport material.

2. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive material comprises a porous film of semiconductor oxide having a photosensitizing dye adsorbed thereon.

3. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the hole transporting material comprises a p-type semiconducting A/M/X compound and the photoactive material comprises an n-type semiconductor; and further wherein the photoactive material is in contact with the hole transporting material at an interface between the two layers and a pn-junction is formed at said interface.

4. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive material is a photoactive organic polymer.

5. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the A/M/X compound has a formula AMX 3 , where A is a Group I element, M is a Group 14 element and X is a Group 17 element.

6. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the A/M/X compound is CsSnI 3 doped with a metal halide.

7. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the A/M/X compound is CsSnBr 3 doped with a metal halide.

8. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the A/M/X compound has a formula selected from AMX 3 , A 2 MX 4 , AM 2 X 5 , A 2 MX 6 or AMX 5 , where A is a Group 1 element, M is a Group 14 element and X is a Group 17 element.

9. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the A/M/X compound has a formula AMX 3 , where A is an organic cation, M is a Group 14 element and X is a Group 17 element.

10. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the A/M/X compound has a formula selected from AMX 3 , A 2 MX 4 , AM 2 X 5 , A 2 MX 6 or AMX 5 , where A is an organic cation, M is a Group 14 element and X is a Group 17 element.

11. The photovoltaic cell of claim 10 , wherein the A/M/X compound is doped with a dopant selected from main group elements, transition metal elements, lanthanide elements, actinide elements or compounds comprising one of more of said elements.

12. The photovoltaic cell of claim 1 , wherein the A/M/X compound is a compound comprising one or more A moieties, one or more M atoms and one or more X atoms, where the A moieties are selected from elements from Group 1 of the periodic table, the M atoms are selected from elements from at least one of Groups 3, 4, 5, 13, 14 or 15 of the periodic table, and the X atoms are selected from elements from Group 17 of the periodic table.

13. A photovoltaic cell comprising:
(a) a first electrode comprising an electrically conductive material;
(b) a second electrode comprising an electrically conductive material;
(c) a photoactive material disposed between, and in electrical communication with, the first and second electrodes; and
(d) a hole transporting material comprising an A/M/X compound, wherein the hole transporting material is disposed between the first and second electrodes and is configured to facilitate the transport of holes generated in the photoactive material to one of the first and second electrodes;
wherein an A/M/X compound is a compound comprising an A moiety, an M atom, and one or more X atoms, where A is Cs, M is Sn and X comprises one or more halide elements.

14. The photovoltaic cell of claim 13 , wherein the photoactive material is in the form of a porous film and the hole transporting material takes the form of a coating that infiltrates the pores of the porous film.

15. The photovoltaic cell of claim 13 , wherein the photoactive material comprises a porous film of semiconductor oxide having a photosensitizing dye adsorbed thereon.

16. The photovoltaic cell of claim 13 , wherein the hole transporting material comprises a p-type semiconducting A/M/X compound and the photoactive material comprises an n-type semiconductor, and further wherein the photoactive material is in contact with the hole transporting material at an interface between the two layers and a pn-junction is formed at said interface.

17. The photovoltaic cell of claim 13 , wherein the photoactive material is a photoactive organic polymer.

18. A photovoltaic cell comprising:
(a) a first electrode comprising an electrically conductive material;
(b) a second electrode comprising an electrically conductive material;
(c) a photoactive material disposed between, and in electrical communication with, the first and second electrodes; and
(d) a hole transporting material comprising an A/M/X compound, wherein the hole transporting material is disposed between the first and second electrodes and is configured to facilitate the transport of holes generated in the photoactive material to one of the first and second electrodes;
wherein an A/M/X compound is a compound comprising one or more A moieties, one or more M atoms and two or more X elements, where the A moieties are selected from organic cations and elements from Group I of the periodic table, the M atoms are selected from elements from at least one of Groups 3, 4, 5, 13, 14 or 15 of the periodic table, and further wherein the A/M/X compound has the formula AMX (3-x) X′ x , where X and X′ are different halogen atoms and 0.01<x<0.99.

19. The photovoltaic cell of claim 18 , wherein the A/M/X compound is doped with a metal halide, such that the material comprises a first phase comprising AMX (3-x) X′ x and a second phase comprising the metal halide dopant.

20. The photovoltaic cell of claim 18 , wherein X is I and X′ is F.

21. The photovoltaic cell of claim 20 , wherein the A/M/X compound is doped with a metal halide, such that the material comprises a first phase comprising AMX (3-x) X′ x and a second phase comprising the metal halide dopant.

22. The photovoltaic cell of claim 21 , comprising CsSnI (3-x) F x doped with SnF 2 .

23. The photovoltaic cell of claim 18 , wherein X is I and X′ is Br.

24. The photovoltaic cell of claim 23 , wherein the A/M/X compound is doped with a metal halide, such that material comprises a first phase comprising AMX (3-x) X′ x and a second phase comprising the metal halide dopant.

25. The photovoltaic cell of claim 24 , comprising CsSnI (3-x) Br x .

26. The photovoltaic cell of claim 25 ,

Assignees

• Univ Northwestern

Inventors

• Kanatzidis Mercouri G
• Chung In
• Lee Byunghong
• Chang Robert P H

Classifications

• F21V9/04

  for filtering out infrared radiation (dichroic reflectors F21V7/22; using liquid-filled chambers F21V9/12) · CPC title

• H01G9/20

  Light-sensitive devices · CPC title

• C09K11/666

  Aluminates; Silicates · CPC title

• Y02E10/542

  Dye sensitized solar cells · CPC title

• H01G9/2059

  comprising an organic dye as the active light absorbing material, e.g. adsorbed on an electrode or dissolved in solution · CPC title