The role of organic cations as additives in photovoltaic perovskites.

The design of additives for perovskite-based solar cells seeks to improve the balance between stability and power conversion efficiency. Organic molecules such as theophylline, theobromine and caffeine (xanthines) have proved to be a good engineering solution. As an alternative, we present a first-principles study of the use of organic cations as additives.

Enhancing the stability and efficiency of MAPbI perovskite solar cells by theophylline-BF alkaloid derivatives, a theoretical-experimental approach.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are an evolving photovoltaic field with the potential to disrupt the established silicon solar cell market. However, the presence of many transport barriers and defect trap states at the interfaces and grain boundaries has negative effects on PSCs; it decreases their efficiency and stability. The purpose of this work was to investigate the effects on efficiency and stability achieved by quaternary theophylline additives in MAPbI PSCs with the structure FTO/TiO/perovskite/spiro-OMeTAD/Ag.