Interface engineering with a novel n-type small organic molecule for efficient inverted perovskite solar cells

Fullerene derivatives are promising electron transporting materials for low-temperature processed inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, fullerene derivatives have some disadvantages, e.g. [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) has unmanageable morphology, low electron mobility and easily generated non-radiative recombination, which restrict the performance of PSCs. Herein, a novel n-type small organic molecule, homologous perylene diimide tetramer (HPDT), is designed and synthesized in this work to engineer the interface properties by enhancing interface contact, decreasing energetic barrier and recombination losses. HPDT shows suitable energy levels and high electron mobility and thus will increase the electron mobility during interface engineering in the inverted PSCs. Moreover, coating HPDT on top of perovskite prior to the deposition of PCBM is helpful to achieve a homogeneous pinhole-free PCBM layer, leading to enhanced power conversion efficiency from 17.38% up to 19.75% for inverted MAPbI3 PSCs along with a negligible hysteresis. Significantly, our results undoubtedly provide new guidelines in exploring n-type organic small molecules for high-performance PSCs.