Facile Synthesis of a Furan-Arylamine Hole-Transporting Material for High-Efficiency, Mesoscopic Perovskite Solar Cells

A novel hole-transporting molecule (F101) based on a furan core has been synthesized by means of a short, high-yielding route. When used as the hole-transporting material (HTM) in mesoporous methylammonium lead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) it produced better device performance than the current state-of-the-art HTM 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD). The F101-HTM-based device exhibited both slightly higher J_sc (19.63 vs. 18.41 mA cm^-2) and V_oc (1.1 vs. 1.05 V) resulting in a marginally higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) (13.1 vs. 13 %). The steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence show that F101 has significant charge extraction ability. The simple molecular structure, short synthesis route with high yield and better performance in devices makes F101 an excellent candidate for replacing the expensive spiro-OMeTAD as HTM in PSCs. Hole in one? An electron-rich molecule containing furan as core and arylamine as side groups has been synthesized. When employed as a hole-transporting material (HTM) in a CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite solar cell, power conversion efficiencies of over 13 % are obtained. This HTM, owing to its simple synthesis and high performance, has great potential to replace the more expensive 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene as the HTM in perovskite solar cells.