Enhancing the c-TiO₂ based perovskite solar cell performance via modification by a serial of boronic acid derivative self-assembled monolayers

Highlights: • SAM modification enhances the performance of perovskite solar cells. • An easy and low-cost method is proposed to improve solar cell performances. • Three different boronic acid derivative SAMs were selected for modification. • The modification of c-TiO₂ increased performances by each SAM molecules selected. - Abstract: Morphological control of MAPbI₃ crystal growth is one of the most important factor to fabricate high efficient perovskite solar cells. Herein, different boronic acid derivative self-assemble monolayers were used for modification of c-TiO₂ surface and controlling of interface properties between c-TiO₂ and MAPbI₃ layers. Pre-mixed MAPbI₃ solution in GBL was deposited by spin-coating technique onto non-modified and modified c-TiO₂ surfaces by selected SAMs. The 1-OMe modified c-TiO₂ based solar cell shows an increase in J_sc, resulting an increase to 9.4% PCE to compare with 5.9% PCE of non-modified c-TiO₂ based solar cell. With this work, we demonstrated the possibility of morphological control of perovskite layer by using simple modification method of sublayer to increase the photovoltaic characteristics of solar cells.