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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Perovskite solar cells with porous carbon electrodes can be manufactured by low-cost screen printing and show promising operational stability

owing to the absence of metals in the electrodes compared to other device configurations. Yet, power conversion efficiency has been stuck around 19% due to high charge recombination rates.

Improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying charge dynamics is not straightforward because of the complex structure of the device, which includes a porous scaffold comprising

electrode, transport and insulation layers into which the perovskite material is infiltrated. Now, Hongwei Han, Anyi Mei, Furi Ling and team across China demonstrate that charge

recombination primarily occurs at the electron transport layer/perovskite interface and is mediated by defects present in the titanium dioxide electron transport layer. The researchers

identify oxygen vacancies as the predominant defect at the surface of the titanium dioxide that trap charges, increasing the chance of recombination. The presence of oxygen vacancies is

accompanied by reduction of titanium ions from Ti4+ to Ti3+. Han and team reason that, since Ti4+ is a hard Lewis acid cation, a hard Lewis base anion can oxidize Ti3+ back to Ti4+ while

also neutralizing the oxygen vacancy. The anion can be added to the system in the form of a salt. The researchers look at the electrostatic potential of different anions and cations to

identify the salt — ammonium phosphate — that has the strongest binding to titanium dioxide and hence better ability to suppress the oxygen vacancy defect. This is a preview of subscription

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* Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Energy https://www.nature.com/nenergy/

Giulia Tregnago Authors * Giulia Tregnago View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Giulia Tregnago. RIGHTS

AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Tregnago, G. Getting a charge out of perovskites. _Nat Energy_ 9, 361 (2024).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01523-9 Download citation * Published: 25 April 2024 * Issue Date: April 2024 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01523-9 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone

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