Suppressing PEDOT:PSS Doping-Induced Interfacial Recombination Loss in Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

PEDOT:PSS is widely used as a hole transport layer (HTL) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to its facile processability, industrial scalability, and commercialization potential. However, PSCs utilizing PEDOT:PSS suffer from strong recombination losses compared to other organic HTLs. This results in lower open-circuit voltage (VOC) and power conversion efficiency (PCE). Most studies focus on doping PEDOT:PSS to improve charge extraction, but it has been suggested that a high doping level can cause strong recombination losses. Herein, we systematically dedope PEDOT:PSS with aqueous NaOH, raising its Fermi level by up to 500 meV, and optimize its layer thickness in p-i-n devices. A significant reduction of recombination losses at the dedoped PEDOT:PSS/perovskite interface is evidenced by a longer photoluminescence lifetime and higher magnitude of surface photovoltage, leading to an increased device VOC, fill factor, and PCE. These results provide insights into the relationship between doping level of HTLs and interfacial charge carrier recombination losses.