Electrodeposition of SnO2 on FTO and its Application in Planar Heterojunction Perovskite Solar Cells as an Electron Transport Layer

Abstract

We report the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with an electron transport layer (ETL) consisting of a SnO2 thin film obtained by electrochemical deposition. The surface morphology and thickness of the electrodeposited SnO2 films were closely related to electrochemical process conditions, i.e., the applied voltage, bath temperature, and deposition time. We investigated the performance of PSCs based on the SnO2 films. Remarkably, the experimental factors that are closely associated with the photovoltaic performance were strongly affected by the SnO2 ETLs. Finally, to enhance the photovoltaic performance, the surfaces of the SnO2 films were modified slightly by TiCl4 hydrolysis. This process improves charge extraction and suppresses charge recombination.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-017-2247-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Room-Temperature Sputtered SnO2 as Robust Electron Transport Layer for Air-Stable and Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells on Rigid and Flexible Substrates

“…These properties prevent perovskite degradation and benefit PSC long-term stability. Despite that high-performance PSCs based on SnO 2 have been achieved, almost all reported SnO 2 films were prepared by spin-coating 25–30 , atomic layer deposition (ALD) 31,32 , plasma-enhanced ALD 33 , sol-gel process 34 , chemical bath deposition 35 , hydrothermal process 36 , and electrodeposition 37 . In fact, many of these methods involve high-temperature processing and annealing ranging from 100 °C up to 550 °C, which again increases fabrication complexity and cost and makes it incompatible with flexible substrates.…”

Mesoscopic Oxide Double Layer as Electron Specific Contact for Highly Efficient and UV Stable Perovskite Photovoltaics

“…27 While none of these results were certified, they concur that using SnO2 as EEL the photovoltaic performance and stability are increased with decreasing the undesirable hysteresis effect. [29][30][31] Here we introduce a mesoscopic oxide double layer as an electron selective contact consisting of a scaffold of TiO2 nanoparticles coated by a thin film of amorphous SnO2 (a-SnO2) using solution deposition. The band gap of the a-SnO2 exceeds that of the crystalline tetragonal polymorph by 0.05 eV, affording perfect alignment of its conduction band with that of the perovskite light harvester.…”

Self‐Aggregation‐Controlled Rapid Chemical Bath Deposition of SnO2 Layers and Stable Dark Depolarization Process for Highly Efficient Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

“…On the other hand, the altered redox reactions appeared on the hydrolyzed (Hyd) SnO 2 films, and the peak-to-peak separation of the cathodic and anodic peak potentials were invisible in the CV curves of the films prepared with concentrations of 80, 120, and 160 mm, implying that the electron transfer through micropore channels was reduced with the help of the enhanced film coverage. [30,37] The conductivity of the deposited SnO 2 films was compared by measuring the J-V curves of an electron-only device in the configuration FTO/SnO 2 /Au, as seen in Figure 4 b. Note that the bulk clusters of aggregated SnO 2 particles are a significant impediment to the conductivity.…”

“…Hence, it is very challenging to obtain efficient SnO 2 -based PSCs without careful manipulation of the atmosphere during SnO 2 film fabrication. [26,27] Reported SnO 2 fabrication methods for PSCs include spin-casting processes, [28] chemical bath deposition (CBD), [29] electrochemical deposition, [30] atomic layer deposition (ALD), [31] and magnetron sputtering. [32] Among these, the CBD method is the best choice because it can cover a large area and is a straightforward, cost-effective method that can be conducted at low temperatures.…”