Publication date: 21st July 2025
Metal halide perovskites incorporating bulky two-dimensional (2D) alkylammonium cations have recently gained attention as a promising route to combine structural stability with outstanding optoelectronic performance in solar cells. In this work, we systematically explored the incorporation of alkylammonium iodides with different chain lengths—dodecylammonium (C12), hexadecylammonium (C16), and octadecylammonium (C18)—into the bulk of perovskite films to understand how these molecules influence film formation and device efficiency. Through advanced spectroscopic, microscopic, and nanoscale mapping techniques, we observed their effects on crystallization dynamics, defect passivation, and charge transport. Among the different chain lengths, C12 emerged as the most effective in striking a balance between lattice expansion and efficient crystal growth, leading to films with enhanced [111] crystal orientation, suppressed nonradiative recombination, uniform cation distribution, and significantly improved vertical conductivity. Nanoscale X-ray diffraction revealed how the introduction of these cations alters lattice spacing and orientation, while AFM-based infrared spectroscopy confirmed effective interfacial passivation without compromising crystal quality. These combined improvements translated directly into superior device performance, with C12-modified perovskite solar cells reaching power conversion efficiencies above 20%, surpassing both pristine films and those modified with longer-chain cations, which suffered from hindered charge transport and less favorable morphologies. Beyond efficiency, the incorporation of C12 also contributed to improved operational stability, reinforcing its promise for practical applications. Altogether, our findings highlight chain-length engineering as a powerful molecular design strategy to direct crystallization, tune structural properties, and optimize optoelectronic behavior. More broadly, this work offers valuable insights for researchers aiming to design more stable, efficient, and scalable perovskite materials, helping move the technology closer to real-world renewable energy solutions.
We gratefully acknowledge the support from FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation, grant number 2017/11986-5 and 2022/16614-7), the support from Shell (grant number 22076-4) and the support from Brazil’s National Oil, Natural Gas, and Biofuels Agency (ANP, grant number 22717-3).
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.