ABSTRACT
Formamidinium lead triiodide (FAPbI3) is the leading candidate for single-junction metal-halide perovskite photovoltaics, despite the metastability of this phase. To enhance its ambient-phase stability and produce world-record photovoltaic efficiencies, methylenediammonium dichloride (MDACl2) has been used as an additive in FAPbI3. MDA2+ has been reported as incorporated into the perovskite lattice alongside Cl-. However, the precise function and role of MDA2+ remain uncertain. Here, we grow FAPbI3 single crystals from a solution containing MDACl2 (FAPbI3-M). We demonstrate that FAPbI3-M crystals are stable against transformation to the photoinactive δ-phase for more than one year under ambient conditions. Critically, we reveal that MDA2+ is not the direct cause of the enhanced material stability. Instead, MDA2+ degrades rapidly to produce ammonium and methaniminium, which subsequently oligomerizes to yield hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA). FAPbI3 crystals grown from a solution containing HMTA (FAPbI3-H) replicate the enhanced α-phase stability of FAPbI3-M. However, we further determine that HMTA is unstable in the perovskite precursor solution, where reaction with FA+ is possible, leading instead to the formation of tetrahydrotriazinium (THTZ-H+). By a combination of liquid- and solid-state NMR techniques, we show that THTZ-H+ is selectively incorporated into the bulk of both FAPbI3-M and FAPbI3-H at â¼0.5 mol % and infer that this addition is responsible for the improved α-phase stability.
ABSTRACT
We report the results of experiments designed to separate the effects of temperature and pressure from liquid composition on the partitioning of Ni between olivine and liquid, [Formula: see text]. Experiments were performed from 1300 to 1600 °C and 1 atm to 3.0 GPa, using mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) glass surrounded by powdered olivine in graphite-Pt double capsules at high pressure and powdered MORB in crucibles fabricated from single crystals of San Carlos olivine at one atmosphere. In these experiments, pressure and temperature were varied in such a way that we produced a series of liquids, each with an approximately constant composition (~12, ~15, and ~21 wt% MgO). Previously, we used a similar approach to show that [Formula: see text] for a liquid with ~18 wt% MgO is a strong function of temperature. Combining the new data presented here with our previous results allows us to separate the effects of temperature from composition. We fit our data based on a Ni-Mg exchange reaction, which yields [Formula: see text] Each subset of constant composition experiments displays roughly the same temperature dependence of [Formula: see text] (i.e.,[Formula: see text]) as previously reported for liquids with ~18 wt% MgO. Fitting new data presented here (15 experiments) in conjunction with our 13 previously published experiments (those with ~18 wt% MgO in the silicate liquid) to the above expression gives [Formula: see text] = 3641 ± 396 (K) and [Formula: see text] = - 1.597 ± 0.229. Adding data from the literature yields [Formula: see text] = 4505 ± 196 (K) and [Formula: see text] = - 2.075 ± 0.120, a set of coefficients that leads to a predictive equation for [Formula: see text] applicable to a wide range of melt compositions. We use the results of our work to model the melting of peridotite beneath lithosphere of varying thickness and show that: (1) a positive correlation between NiO in magnesian olivine phenocrysts and lithospheric thickness is expected given a temperature-dependent [Formula: see text] and (2) the magnitude of the slope for natural samples is consistent with our experimentally determined temperature dependence. Alternative processes to generate the positive correlation between NiO in magnesian olivines and lithospheric thickness, such as the melting of olivine-free pyroxenite, are possible, but they are not required to explain the observed correlation of NiO concentration in initially crystallizing olivine with lithospheric thickness.
