Underlying Interface Defect Passivation and Charge Transfer Enhancement via Sulfonated Hole-Transporting Materials for Efficient Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

To date, numbers of polymeric hole-transporting materials (HTMs) have been developed to improve interfacial charge transport to achieve high-performance inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, molecular design for passivating the underlying surface defects between perovskite and HTMs is a neglected issue, which is a major bottleneck to further enhance the performance of the inverted devices. Herein, we design and synthesize a new polymeric HTM PsTA-mPV with the methylthiol group, in which a lone pair of electrons of sulfur atoms can passivate the underlying interface defects of the perovskite more efficiently by coordinating Pb²⁺ vacancies. Furthermore, PsTA-mPV exhibits a deeper highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level aligned with perovskite due to the π-acceptor capability of sulfur, which improves interfacial charge transfer between perovskite and the HTM layer. Using PsTA-mPV as a dopant-free HTM, the inverted PSCs show 20.2% efficiency and long-term stability, which is ascribed to surface defect passivation, well energy-level matching with perovskite, and efficient charge extraction.