Perovskite based optoelectronics: molecular design perspectives – a themed collection
Nakita K.
Noel
ab and
Henry J.
Snaith
c
aPrinceton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University, 41 Olden Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
bDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, 41 Olden Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
cClarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK
Abstract
Guest Editors Nakita K. Noel and Henry J. Snaith introduce this themed collection of papers showcasing the latest research into how the structure and composition of perovskite materials can affect their chemical and physical properties, as well as how the design and engineering of charge selective layers affects the performance of perovskite-based devices.
 Nakita K. Noel | Dr. Noel obtained B.Sc degrees in Chemistry and Physics from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (2010), after which she undertook her PhD in Condensed Matter Physics (2014) at the University of Oxford working with Prof. Henry J. Snaith. Her research interests involve the solution chemistry and processing of metal halide perovskites, specifically with the goals of reducing toxicity and improving the stability and performance of perovskite-based optoelectronics. Dr. Noel is currently a Materials Science Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Princeton Center for Complex Materials working with Profs. Barry Rand and Craig Arnold. |
 Henry J. Snaith | Henry Snaith undertook his PhD at the University of Cambridge, working on organic photovoltaics, then spent two years at the EPFL as a post-doc working on dye-sensitized solar cells. Since 2007 he has held a professorship at the University of Oxford Clarendon Laboratory where his group researches organic, hybrid and perovskite optoelectronic devices. Professor Snaith was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015, he is a 2017 Clarivate Citation Laureate, and among his awards are the 2017 Royal Society James Joule Medal and Prize. In 2010 he founded Oxford Photovoltaics Ltd. which is commercializing the perovskite solar technology transferred from his laboratory. |
Following a century of being the subject of curiosity driven research, metal halide perovskites have undergone a renaissance and become a major field of academic research since their re-emergence as absorber materials for solar cells between 2009 and 2012. With a wide range of impressive optoelectronic properties and easily tunable band gaps, they have since been successfully integrated into highly efficient photovoltaic devices, light emitting diodes, lasers and photodetectors.
Much of the early work on perovskite-based devices had been focused on improving the surface coverage and uniformity of the perovskite film through manipulation of the kinetics of the crystallisation and film formation process. Though a detailed understanding of the basic chemistry underlying these processes is still out of reach, there are now numerous methods through which high-quality perovskite films can be fabricated. With the ability to produce high-quality films, researchers have acquired a good understanding of the bulk properties of the perovskite and compositional engineering which they can leverage to produce materials with the desired optoelectronic properties.
Going forward, one of the areas which has the greatest potential to further improve the performance and stability of perovskite-based devices is the optimisation of the interface regions – the surface and contact between the perovskite absorber and the adjacent charge extraction materials.
With a more detailed understanding of what is required to further improve these devices, we can now strive to engineer them through more bottom-up approaches. These include the molecular design of the perovskite material to increase its resilience to external factors such as moisture, oxygen or heat; and the molecular engineering of hole and electron transport materials with the aim of reducing interface recombination and improving charge extraction.
The invited papers showcased in this issue present insights into current bottlenecks in perovskite-based devices, and how a variety of molecular design and engineering approaches can be used to improve the overall performance and stability of these systems. These contributions highlight the value of rationalised, bottom-up approaches to solving problems in all parts of the field.
| This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2018 |