In this work, two thermal- and air-stable, hole transporting materials (HTM) in perovskite solar cells are analyzed. Those obtained and investigated materials were two polyazomethines: the first one with three thiophene rings and 3,3′-dimethoxybenzidine moieties (S9) and the second one with three thiophene rings and fluorene moieties (S7). Furthermore, presented polyazomethines were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–vis spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) experiments. Both polyazomethines (S7 and S9) possessed good thermal stability with a 5% weight loss at 406 and 377°C, respectively. The conductivity of S7 was two orders of magnitude higher than for S9 polymer (2.7 × 10−8 S/cm, and 2.6 × 10−10 S/cm, respectively). Moreover, polyazomethine S9 exhibited 31 nm bathochromic shift of the absorption band maximum compared to S7.
Obtained perovskite was investigated by UV–vis and XRD. Electrical parameters of perovskite solar cells (PSC) were investigated at Standard Test Conditions (STC). It was found that both polyazomethines protect perovskite which is confirmed by ageing test where Voc did not decrease significantly for solar cells with HTM in contrast to solar cell without hole conductor, where Voc decrease was substantial. The best photoconversion efficiency (PCE = 6.9%), among two investigated in this work polyazomethines, was obtained for device with the following architectures FTO/TiO2/TiO2 + perovskite/S7/Au. Stability test proved the procreative effects of polyazomethines on perovskite absorber.
Three low molecular weight compounds bearing carbazole units (1,6-di{3-[2-(4-methylphenyl)vinyl]carbazol-9-yl}hexane and 9,9'-di{6-[3-(2-(4-methylphenyl)vinyl)-9-carbazol-9-yl]hexyl}-[3,3']bicarbazole) and phenoxazine structure (10-butyl-3,7-diphenylphenoxazine) were tested as hole-transporting materials in perovskite solar cells. Two of them were successfully applied as hole transporting layers in electroluminescent light emitted diodes. The examined compounds were high-thermally stable with decomposition temperature found at the range of 280–419 °C. Additionally, DSC measurement revealed that they can be converted into amorphous materials. The compounds possess adequate ionization potentials, to perovskite energy levels, being in the range of 5.15–5.36 eV. The significant increase in power conversion efficiency from 1.60% in the case of a device without hole-transporting layer, to 5.31% for device with 1,6-di{3-[2-(4-methylphenyl)vinyl]carbazol-9- yl}hexane was observed.