Key Takeaways & Executive Findings
- •• • PCEs exceeding 27% in PSCs rival crystalline silicon, but industrial viability demands interfacial stability and large-area manufacturability. • • SAMs offer tunable energy levels and reduced defects but suffer from aggregation and hydrophobicity, leading to nonuniform nucleation and pinholes in large-area coatings. • • Co-SAMs have been explored but remain effective only for small or mini-modules, leaving scalability unresolved. • • The 'SAM-in-matrix' strategy using BCF disrupts π–π stacking, yielding an amorphous, uniform, and highly wettable HTL, addressing key scale-up bottlenecks.
Abstract
Metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have achieved power conversion efficiencies exceeding 27%, rivaling crystalline silicon photovoltaics. Among device architectures, the inverted p-i-n configuration offers excellent reproducibility, negligible hysteresis, and compatibility with silicon bottom cells, making it promising for scalable tandem integration. As the field shifts toward industrial viability, key challenges focus on interfacial stability, process reproducibility, and large-area manufacturability. The buried interface between the perovskite absorber and charge transport layers dictates nucleation, crystallization, charge extraction, and recombination dynamics. Imperfect interfacial contact or mismatched energy alignment leads to trap states, increased nonradiative recombination, and rapid degradation. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have revolutionized interface control, offering tunable energy levels, minimized parasitic absorption, and reduced defects. However, SAM-based interfaces face scale-up challenges due to molecular aggregation, incomplete coverage, and hydrophobicity, causing nonuniform nucleation and pinhole formation. Co-assembled monolayers (Co-SAMs) have been explored but remain limited to small areas. Addressing this bottleneck, Zhao et al. proposed a 'SAM-in-matrix' strategy embedding SAM molecules within a tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) matrix. This BCF framework disrupts π–π stacking, suppressing aggregation and producing an amorphous, uniform, and highly wettable hole transport layer, potentially enabling scalable manufacturing.
1. Introduction
The pursuit of industrial-grade perovskite photovoltaics has reached a critical juncture: while record efficiencies now exceed 27%, translating these lab-scale triumphs into commercially viable modules demands a fundamental rethinking of interfacial engineering. The buried interface—the junction between the perovskite absorber and charge transport layers—has emerged as the linchpin governing both efficiency and operational durability. Conventional self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have enabled remarkable progress in small-area cells by tuning work functions and passivating defects, yet their scale-up is stymied by molecular aggregation and hydrophobic surfaces that compromise coating uniformity and induce pinhole formation. These issues become acute in slot-die or blade-coated films, where defect tolerance directly impacts module yield.
Zhao et al. confront this bottleneck head-on with an innovative 'SAM-in-matrix' architecture, embedding SAM molecules within a tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) matrix. This approach disrupts the intermolecular π–π stacking that drives aggregation, yielding an amorphous, uniform, and highly wettable hole transport layer. By decoupling the functional benefits of SAMs from their inherent scalability limitations, this strategy offers a pragmatic pathway toward large-area manufacturing without sacrificing the interfacial precision that underpins high-efficiency devices.
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Yiting Zheng, Yonghua Chen (2026). From Monolayers to Matrices: Redefining Buried Interfaces in Scalable Perovskite Photovoltaics. SCIENCE CHINA Materials. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-025-3924-x
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Frequently Asked Questions
What specific failure mechanisms arise from SAM aggregation during large-area coating, and how does the BCF matrix mitigate them?
SAM aggregation, driven by π–π interactions among carbazole units, leads to incomplete monolayer coverage and interfacial inhomogeneity. This causes nonuniform nucleation, pinhole formation, and grain-boundary defects, particularly in slot-die or blade-coated films. The BCF matrix disrupts these π–π interactions, producing an amorphous, uniform layer that enhances wettability and suppresses aggregation, thereby improving coating uniformity and defect tolerance.
How does the 'SAM-in-matrix' strategy affect the energy level alignment and charge extraction efficiency compared to conventional SAMs?
The BCF matrix preserves the tunable energy levels of SAM molecules while providing a uniform amorphous matrix. This maintains favorable energy alignment for hole extraction, as evidenced by the detailed spectroscopic analysis mentioned in the text. The uniform coverage reduces trap states and nonradiative recombination, potentially enhancing charge extraction efficiency.
What are the quantitative improvements in device performance or stability achieved with the SAM-in-matrix approach?
The text indicates that the strategy addresses scalability bottlenecks, but specific quantitative data (e.g., PCE, stability metrics) are not provided in the excerpt. However, the approach is positioned to enable large-area fabrication without compromising efficiency, suggesting improvements in uniformity and defect passivation that translate to higher module yields.
What is the industrial relevance of the BCF matrix in terms of cost and process compatibility?
BCF is a commercially available compound, and the matrix approach is compatible with solution-based coating methods like slot-die and blade-coating. By eliminating the need for complex co-SAM formulations and improving wettability, the process simplifies manufacturing and reduces defects, potentially lowering production costs and enhancing throughput.
How does the SAM-in-matrix strategy compare to other interface engineering approaches like Co-SAMs in terms of scalability?
Co-SAMs have shown promise but remain effective only for small or mini-modules due to similar aggregation and wettability issues. The SAM-in-matrix approach directly addresses these limitations by embedding SAMs in a BCF matrix, which disrupts aggregation and improves wettability, making it more amenable to large-area coating techniques and thus more scalable.
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