Professor Xie Yiming from College of Materials Science and Engineering, Huaqiao University (HQU) and Researcher Lu Chanzhong from Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FJIRSM) have made significant advancements in using three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Their research, titled “High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cells via 3D Covalent Organic Frameworks: Enhanced Efficiency through Precision Interface Engineering” has been published in the prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Founded in 1888 and published by Wiley-VCH, Angewandte Chemie International Edition is recognized as one of the most influential journals in the fields of chemistry and materials science.
Covalent organic frameworks (COFs), a class of porous polymers with tunable 2D or 3D structures, have drawn significant attention for their exceptional versatility across various applications. Recently, the integration of COFs into perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has emerged as a promising strategy to address critical challenges, such as instability, interfacial recombination losses, and lead-associated environmental risks. Enhanced charge transport channels, passivation of defects, and customizable molecule architectures are some of the special benefits that COFs offer. In this study, they used Schiff base reactions to create two donor–acceptor (D-A) type COFs with an 8+2 connection motif, which were integrated into PSC self-assembled (SAM) layers. According to characterizations and theoretical calculations, COFs not only effectively optimize the energy level of the ITO/SAM substrate but also passivate perovskite defects and suppress defect-assisted recombination in PSC devices. These modifications significantly enhanced carrier transport and extraction, resulting in an increase in power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 22.57% to 25.20% (DP-BE) and 24.21% (DP-DBE). This work highlights the potential of COFs as multifunctional modifiers for interfacial engineering in PSCs, offering a promising route to improve device performance and stability.
HQU Professor Xie Yiming, and FJIRSM Researcher Lu Chanzhong and Associate Researcher Wu Xiaowei are co-corresponding authors of this study. HQU doctoral students Wei Shanyue and Pan Weichun co-first authored the paper. The College of Materials Science and Engineering at Huaqiao University serves as the primary affiliation for the research. The study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 22271106, 22105202, 22275185), a self-determined project from the Xiamen Institute Rare-earth Materials (2023GG01), the Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China (2021ZZ115), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB20000000), and the State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry at the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (20230027).
Link to the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.202500163
(Editor: Wei Linying)
