Enhanced thermal stability of inverted perovskite solar cells by interface modification and additive strategy

Inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have recently gained increasing attention because of the long operation lifetime achieved. However, bathocuproine (BCP): a commonly used buffer layer in inverted PSCs, is experimentally confirmed by us to show fast aggregation at the temperature of 85 °C, which is the protocol temperature required by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard. This thermal instability of the BCP interfacial layer makes long-term thermal stability of inverted PSCs questionable. Simply removing or replacing it can directly lead to an inferior PCE of a device. We solve this problem by removing the BCP layer and simultaneously increasing the thickness of C₆₀, which obtains a high efficiency of 18% comparable with the device with BCP. This is possibly attributed to the extended migration path of carriers from C₆₀ to metal electrode Ag, consequently reducing the carrier accumulation at the interface. In addition to the interfacial modification, the addition of ionic liquid: BMIMBF₄ into perovskite can further improve a device's thermal stability by its effective suppression of perovskite decomposition. The devices with 0.4 mol% of BMIMBF₄ exhibit promising thermal stability by retaining 80% of their initial PCE after thermal aging of 400 h at 85 °C.