Hole Selective SAM Materials for Tin-Containing PSCs

Mantas Marčinskas^a, Tadas Malinauskas^a, Vytautas Getautis^a

^aDepartment of Organic Chemistry, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas LT-50254, Lithuania.

Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV26)

Uppsala, Sweden, 2026 May 18th - 20th

Organizers: Gerrit Boschloo, Ellen Moons, Feng Gao and Anders Hagfeldt

Poster, Mantas Marčinskas, 218
Publication date: 11th March 2026

As perovskite-based technologies, such as perovskite solar cells (PSCs), are being investigated deeper, a growing amount of research are being focused on tin-containing perovskites and their devices. A majority of currently investigated tin-containing PSCs are employing PEDOT:PSS as an efficient hole transporting material, which enables top-tier efficiencies in class. As PEDOT:PSS is not perfect towards device long-term stability, an effort was put to replace them with self-assembled monolayer (SAM) materials trying to repeat their previous success in fully lead-based PSCs. However, it was noticed that most of the conventional or already commercialized SAM materials, that are optimized for lead-based systems, do not work very well in PSCs when lead is fully or partially replaced with tin, raising a demand for new and efficient hole selective SAM materials, that could challenge or outperform the standard PEDOT:PSS [1-2]. In this research, a synthesis strategy of incorporating different functional groups, that could possibly provide additional interactions with the perovskite, have been used. New SAM materials containing additional heteroatoms in the chromophore (e.g. phenothiazine and phenoxazine) or functional groups (thiophenes), and ionic functional groups were synthesized and investigated. They were used to construct efficient narrow band-gap lead-tin (1:1) or fully tin-based perovskite solar cells, yielding in respectively high efficiencies [3-5].

References:

[1] Girolamo, D.D.; Aktas, E.; Ponti, C.; Pascual, J.; Li, G.; Li, M.; Nasti, G.; Alharthi, F.; Mura, F.; Abate, A. Enabling water-free PEDOT as hole selective layer in lead-free tin perovskite solar cells. Mater. Adv. 2022, 3, 9083–9089.

[2] Song, D.; Ramakrishnan, S.; Zhang, Y.; Yu, Q. Mixed Self-Assembled Monolayers for High-Photovoltage Tin Perovskite Solar Cells. ACS Energy Lett. 2024, 9, 4, 1466–1472.

[3] Stacchini, V.; Rastgoo, M.; Marčinskas, M.; Frasca, C.; Morita, K.; Frohloff, L.; Treglia, A.; Gries, T. W.; Karalis, O.; Getautis, V.; Ruske, F.; Petrozza, A.; Koch, N.; Hempel, H.; Malinauskas, T.; Abate, A.; Musiienko, A. Phenothiazine-Based Self-Assembled Monolayer with Thiophene Head Groups Minimizes Buried Interface Losses in Tin Perovskite Solar Cells. Adv. Energy Mater. 2025, 15, 2500841.

[4] Cuzzupè, D. T.; Franckevičius, M.; Karalis, O.; Temitmie, Y. A.; Marčinskas, M.; Azhar, M.; Britto, N. J.; Eberle, T.; Andrienko, D.; Getautis, V.; Malinauskas, T.; Hempel, H.; Schmidt-Mende, L. Revealing the Energy Level and Charge Dynamics Interplay in Mixed Pb–Sn Perovskite Solar Cells with Novel Phenoxazine and Phenothiazine Self-Assembled Monolayers. Sol. RRL 2026, 10, e2500768.

[5] Zhumagali, S.; Li, C.; Marcinskas, M.; Dally, P.; Liu, Y.; Ugur, E.; Petoukhoff, C. E.; Ghadiyali, M.; Prasetio, A.; Marengo, M.; Pininti, A. R.; Azmi, R.; Schwingenschlögl, U.; Laquai, F.; Getautis, V.; Malinauskas, T.; Aydin, E.; Sargent, E. H.; De Wolf, S. Efficient Narrow Bandgap Pb–Sn Perovskite Solar Cells Through Self-Assembled Hole Transport Layer with Ionic Head. Adv. Energy Mater. 2025, 15, 2404617.

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