The Central Role of Ligand Conjugation for Properties of Coordination Complexes as Hole-Transport Materials in Perovskite Solar Cells

Two zinc-based coordination complexes Y3 and Y4 have been synthesized and characterized, and their performance as hole-transport materials (HTMs) for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has been investigated. The complex Y3 contains two separate ligands, and the molecular structure can be seen as a disconnected porphyrin ring. On the other hand, Y4 consists of a porphyrin core and therefore is a more extended conjugated system as compared to Y3. The optical and redox properties of the two different molecular complexes are comparable. However, the hole mobility and conductivity of Y4 as macroscopic material are remarkably higher than that of Y3. Furthermore, when employed as hole-transport materials in perovskite solar cells, cells containing Y4 show a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.05%, comparable to the Spiro-OMeTAD-based solar cells with an efficiency around 17.08%. In contrast, solar cells based on Y3 show a negligible efficiency of about 0.01%. The difference in performance of Y3 and Y4 is analyzed and can be attributed to the difference in packing of the nonplanar and planar building blocks in the corresponding materials.