Development of Hybrid Pseudohalide Tin Perovskites for Highly Stable Carbon-Electrode Solar Cells

Tin-based perovskites degrade rapidly upon interaction with water and oxygen in air because Sn-I bonds are weak. To address this issue, we developed novel tin perovskites, FASnI_(3-x)(SCN)_x (x = 0, 1, 2, or 3), by employing a pseudohalide, thiocyanate (SCN^-), as a replacement for halides and as an inhibitor to suppress the Sn²⁺/Sn⁴⁺ oxidation. The structural and electronic properties of pseudohalide tin perovskites in this series were explored with quantum-chemical calculations by employing the plane-wave density functional theory (DFT) method; the corresponding results are consistent with the experimental results. Carbon-based perovskite devices fabricated with tin perovskite FASnI(SCN)₂ showed about a threefold enhancement of the device efficiency (2.4%) relative to that of the best FASnI₃-based device (0.9%), which we attribute to the improved suppression of the formation of Sn⁴⁺, retarded charge recombination, enhanced hydrophobicity, and stronger interactions between Sn and thiocyanate for FASnI(SCN)₂ than those for FASnI₃. After the incorporation of phenylethyleneammonium iodide (PEAI, 10%) and ethylenediammonium diiodide (EDAI₂, 5%) as coadditives, the FASnI(SCN)₂ device gave the best photovoltaic performance with J_SC = 20.17 mA cm^-2, V_OC = 322 mV, fill factor (FF) = 0.574, and overall efficiency of power conversion PCE = 3.7%. Moreover, these pseudohalide-containing devices display negligible photocurrent-voltage hysteresis and great stability in ambient air conditions.